Listener 4180 Knight's Move by Merlin

[Ruthrobin]

I am thoroughly enjoying this beautifully clued crossword and have already found the theme and quotation. Great fun, thank you, Merlin. (Still some finishing touches to go - have to find and replace the distraught protagonist.)

[teuchter2]

A really excellent offering. Everything became clear once I found the quotation, though I burnt my dinner whilst musing on the surroundings.

[Mesnilpat]

An enjoyable puzzle - thanks Merlin

[Alan7777]

I thought that this was pretty straightforward although, like others, I'm not sure whether overwriting means replacing or something else. Also I don't see the point of highlighting the cells from which the protagonist has been removed as these will be obvious anyway.

I don't think that there have been any really hard ones yet this year - or am I just getting better?

[contendo]

Just checked the solution to 4177 and find that I have alternatives to some of the answers. I'm not sure mine is not equally valid, but it would be too complicated to discuss it in detail here. I thought the ambiguity was whether to put ADD or AND, defined by join, in row 9. I put AND.

[qwerty99]

Alan 7777 - read the last sentence of the preamble again!

[IainGrace]

Finished although struggling to get the wordplay in 25 down.

[tilbee]

Alan7777 - suggest you re-read the preamble carefully. Not sure you are quite finished as yet.

[tilbee]

See qwerty99 beat me to it. For those lacking a challenge I found Gift Rush in this month's Magpie very good.

[Alekhine]

Most enjoyable.

As my monicker would imply, I loved the Knight ending.

[aldanna]

Enjoyed this. Rather a lot of Life this weekend for me to make the Friday Club (obviously the only reason) but I have a full grid, have identified the quotation and have some idea where I am going. The solution to last week's endgame floated into my mind from I know not where, so maybe this will do that too.

[Alan7777]

Will I ever learn to read the preamble properly and accept that when something doesn't sound quite right it probably isn't?

[Walterloo]

Alan7777 - If it makes you feel any better I did the same thing. I 'finished' it, reread the preamble again and realised I'd been a doofus. Then I highlighted the correct items.

[Walterloo]

Tilbee - I agree on Gift Rush. A really good solve and a most satisfying PDM when I worked out the cipher.

[Cruncher]

Glad for the encouragement on Gift Rush which is still proving elusive. This one, by comparison, was a pleasant and well-constructed stroll. Thanks Merlin

[bobbycollins]

Great stuff

[ArchieLeach]

I also started off with Alan777's mistake then realised I had to look further. "If it doesn't sound quite right" is certainly a good rule to apply, but then including a proper name as a real word left behind without mentioning it in the preamble doesn't sound right to me, but apparently this time it is.

[perseverer]

ArchieLeach - Listener crosswords regularly include proper names, not to be found in Chambers. The removal of the 'Some First Names' section from the latest edition is not likely to stop such names appearing, but is likely to prevent clues making use of the meanings of names as formerly given by the dictionary.

[magichour]

Due to visitors at the weekend I was late getting stuck into this one, but found it thoroughly enjoyable, especially after not liking last week's much. Once the quotation had been found, it made the endgame fall into place. The last bit of head scratching involved where to move the protagonist to, but that PDM came this morning. A nice puzzle - thanks to Merlin.

[the_heisman]

Very nice crossword. I would rather not be a Friday club member as I want it to last to the next one. I know the answer is The Magpie but I am still in denial about my addiction to these things.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, the_heisman, there's my prompt for the Magpie plug. The good thing is that you have an indication of the difficulty level of each of the six puzzles and can fit one in (an easy) if you finish the Listener early - the Magpie ones last all month. You are going to have to face up to the addiction!