Listener No 4163 Aversions by Brock

[Ruthrobin]

Am I honestly the first of the Friday Club? What a fine, interesting set of clues. We guessed the theme quite early, which helped. Brock has produced another excellent challenge. Thank you Brock!

[contendo]

My OED doesn't give it. It's in the supplement but it doesn't give a plural form.

[emcee]

Late starter to this one. A nice puzzle that didn't need all asterisked clues to be solved -- I guessed the extra word in a few before going back and solving later. Many thanks to Brock for an entertaining diversion.

[upsetter]

I have filled in the grid and found the age of the subject -but can make no connection between the theme and the grid fill and have only found one of the misprints we have not had to refer to the source - have I missed something?

[perseverer]

Only the satisfaction of knowing what it is all about, and understanding the clues? If you have the age, you know when the subject was born - try Googling that.

[IainGrace]

Enjoyable but no need to understand - or demonstrate understanding of - how the clues work etc in order to complete the grid?

[sunny-dave]

Home after a weekend away with my reading group - wits suitably sharpened by intellectual discussion, then blunted again by alcoholic beverages.

Time to download & get stuck into Brock's offering ...

[IainGrace]

Now back to Mash which we have scarcely started so probably wasting our time, although we have solved most of the clues. In the first grid do 1ac and 1dn go in in conventional left corner fashion and, if so, is there an obvious reason (other than stupidity) why we can't seem to place other early acrosses/downs, even bearing in mind clues going off the edge? Any oblique assistance welcome,

[perseverer]

upsetter - apologies for my earlier post - I interpreted 'have found only one of the misprints' a bit too literally - a moment's thought and I should have realised what you were referring to.

[trux]

Clever idea, perhaps not entirely capitalised on to the max, but quite fun to find links after gridfill ... I wonder if anyone knows how many versions there are in total? On a different note, did anyone else notice in this weekend's FT that one lucky Gozoan (Gozoite?) won both the Cryptic and the Polymath? Now what are the odds of that? Some guys have all ... (Z Cup for me) ...

[tilbee]

IainGrace - though perhaps not strictly necessary, fully understanding the theme significantly speeds up resolution time. Again having access to the additional reference clearly defines the number of possible choices and helps remove any potential ambuguities.

Re 4162 I will respond on the previous thread.

[IainGrace]

Thanks, Tilbee.

[sunny-dave]

Nice puzzle - just hard enough for a quiet Sunday evening in front of the woodburner - and without any ghastly 'gridstaring' for a final pdm.

Thematically not my area of expertise but some very amusing insights.

[tristram37]

Frankly I don't think any of the asterisked clues needed to be solved, surely a big flaw. Once you have the reference it's quite easy to work them out, of course. I don't understand the "order determined by the grid" in line 3 of the preamble.

[tenflags]

You and me Tristram37 ... will ponder a bit more - then a nice break before next weeks - which I have been led to believe is a numbers one ? - which tend to take me longer.

[jim360]

In an amusing coincidence, the "reference" arrived at my room on Friday night - the day before I would need it! Solved (almost) the full puzzle without actually using that reference, but still, knowing what it was and being able to guess at it early on, meant I could locate the misprints much quicker than I otherwise would have.

Perhaps an unfortunate Listener, then, in that I only worked out fully what was going on after I'd done it all - rather like that "Measure for Measure" one a few weeks back, which also could be solved without needing a "complete" knowledge of the earlier solutions. Using the reference I've been able to work backwards on a couple of the asterisked clues, though.

Bear69, re last week's - I'm guessing your solution is the same as the one I've got written down, though I know what's wrong with it. If so - you won't be far away from the correct solution, so keep thinking about it!

[aldanna]

Little time this weekend, but have just finished. The theme was easy to spot, but I found some of the clues difficult - I always think misprints in the definition are much the hardest to deal with. It does seem to be one where the grid can be filled without sorting out every detail fully (doubtless the purists do that).

[Alan7777]

I think I've finished but would be happier if I could tie the asterisked clues together and understood 'in an order determined by the grid'. I agree with some others that it appears possible to complete it with solving all aspects.

I did find some of the clues quite difficult and was helped significantly by getting the subject somewhat fortuitously.

Happy with my decision not to attempt last week's given the comments here but looking forward to next week's numerical challenge - may live to regret that!

[JackDeCrow]

Alan7777 if you read around the relevant pages of the quoted reference, almost all the asterisked items are specifically listed. But it hasn't left me any the wiser on the why the "order determined by the grid"!

[Alan7777]

Jack, unfortunately I don't have access to the reference but am happy I have the right entries for the asterisked clues given each clue's extra word and the very limited possibilities for words that fit.

[contendo]

I think the "order determined by the grid" simply means that the relevant words have to go into the grid where they fit and so that is the order in which the extra words appear. There's no added significance in the order.