Listener 4199 Scattered by Kea

[Ruthrobin]

What a pleasure to see a Kea puzzle but what a tough solve. No, not really opening the Friday club as I still have to produce my final grid and there is some demanding word play to sort out but many thanks to Kea for an astonishingly challenging puzzle!

[olichant]

Having finally got it - wow. I won't divulge how long it took me. Suffice to say, if it were not for the (rightly) effusive comments from everyone here, I would have given up several days ago. Many, many thanks to one and all - and, of course, to Kea. Incredible.

[Alekhine]

Late posting here this week for various reasons.

I thought that 4199 was exceptional. I had a grid fill early in the week, but hesitated over the final stage through fear and trepidation. Having had chance today to get back to it, I discover that my fears were whatever the opposite of 'groundless' is.

So, I did due diligence ... and it has increased my awe-levels.

Great work, Kea. Thank you.

[aputt]

so, i have 8 clashes- got the message but not sure what to do next. any gentle hints to [email protected] would be very welcome! thanks

[Scorpius]

I didn't start this until a couple of days ago, so I'm quite pleased to have got to the end after a long struggle. However, I seem to be in a minority of one. Although the construction is incredibly clever I'm left rather underwhelmed.

[Staurologist]

Since my last posting I have been considering the possibility that Kea's grid was composed first, and that the [apparent] source was composed after it rather than before. That would have made composition easier. But even so...

[vetuste_ennemi]

Like you, Scorpius, I am somewhat bemused by the hyperbole. No diss intended to Kea or other compilers (whom I certainly couldn't equal), but it is easy to see how programmatically you could get from source to final result. The comparisons to Duet are off beam and I agree with Jim about the six letter word which describes what is actually happening rather than what you might infer from the word used. I'd intended to offer commiserations for a Gallant performance, Jim, but when I reread your post I realised that you were the bloke at the other end. Historians might want to hunt down Dimitry's New Years Resolutions which only I and one other on the Listener threads remembers.

[IainGrace]

We have yet to crack the endgame here, having worked out the description. Does it involve a wholesale reconstruction of the grid or something less than that - if that can be answered without giving too much away, and assuming the question itself is not too subjective? We have an idea which means that the final change is less than wholesale, but the plaudits for the puzzle perhaps suggest the opposite.

[tnap]

IainGrace - be assured that wholesale reconstruction is not required. The 16-letter description is important.

[jim360]

Yes, only the seven changes mentioned in the preamble, and the entries to the seven clashes, are required. It's worth thinking about what the first word in the hidden message is referring, since it's not intended as a definition!

[IainGrace]

Thanks to both. Must be on the right track but missing the nuance. At least four interpretations of the instruction to date for us.

[tramart]

IainGrace - Consider that which would have been the most difficult for the setter to achieve, hence the praise directed towards Kea, to which I add my own.
Also, beware that "seven unchecked letters ...." could easily be misunderstood.

[Scree]

I've gradually worked my way through this. Like others I struggled most with 11 across (I generally use wordfun to search, but clearly the answer wasn't in their dictionary. I found it when I tried Quinapalus).

Like most posters I'm impressed with the construction of this puzzle, and I didn't find the 16-letter phrase ambiguous (so am I missing something?)

My only problem is that things don't quite add up. I've got a grid containing nothing but real words, and I've changed seven unchecked letters. Things would be perfect if the all-important last-minute decision in the earlier game had gone the other way (hope that specifies my problem without giving anything away!)

As it is, I'm inclined to submit my solution even if it's wrong rather than waste the hours spent carefully checking. I realise that the answer might involve different choices about clashes and unchecked letters, but I can't face the thought of starting that process from scratch again.

[jim360]

You could send me an email at [email protected] and (assuming my own grid was correct but it seemed to fit!) I might be able to have a look. From the sounds of things it might be just the one or two changes needed.

[jim360]

Yes, in Granada studios. Next to Jeremy Kyle. Though I know which one I'd rather watch...

[cruciverbali]

It was next to 'Crown Court' back in those days , though I recall that BG was far less judgemental than JP !

[sunny-dave]

Crikey ... when everything else fails, consider the impossible

< thanks to Upsetter for giving me the will to go on >

[Scree]

Jim

Thanks for the offer but I've left it a bit late so I'll stick with what I've got and make sure I catch tomorrow morning's post!

[IainGrace]

Jim360, we've now submitted but sure we're wrong, since we think we know what we are trying to do and it doesn't quite hang together. May have a wrong grid entry, of course. Now that we have submitted, will drop you an email so that we can be put out of our misery in less than three weeks.

[IainGrace]

Jim has now enlightened us and we are in the "wow" camp. We were off on a wrong tack, albeit that, based on such answers as Jim could recall, we may have got some of the final entries right. Chances of having got them all right, though, must be nil. Our only PDM is that we now understand Tramart's hint to us.