Listener 4235 X And Y By Ron

[midazolam]

What an excellent Listener. Thorough enjoyment from start to finish. Solid clues with a variety of straightforward and tricky ones. The grid fill looked tough at first with no entry greater than seven, but given the number of across clues, the rows could be worked out from the start. A bit of head-scratching at the end with the bars, but with another PDM it came together without ambiguity. Many thanks Ron.

[Staurologist]

After Quinapalus's elegant reverse dissection of a 13 x 13 into a 12 x 12 plus a 5 x 5 (in ELM), I was expecting an ingenious dissection from a square into a regular dodecagon. However, that would have required more cuts than were asked for, so the true solution was a bit of an anticlimax. Entertaining enough (especially because the volume from which this poem came delighted me as a child and later my children too), but, despite its neat construction, which I appreciate, not up there for me. Did any one else think that one of the six victims wasn't quite in the right category?

For those who are interested in proper geometrical dissections, I warmly recommend Greg Frederickson's lively account "Dissections: Plane and Fancy". You don't have to be a mathematician to enjoy it.

[sunny-dave]

I liked that :+)

Thanks Ron - excellent clues and a nice (fair) Carte Blanche.

The final moves/cuts took a while to spot but were obviously correct once done.

One of my favourites of 2013 so far.

[magichour]

I couldn't for the life of me see how this was going to form a dodecagon, but following the instructions literally and playing around suddenly made everything fall into place. A good level of difficulty and an excellent puzzle. Glad to get it out of the way as I suspect there will be little time to complete 4236 while getting wet in the Lake District.

For those who buy the Saturday Times, look out for the Scrabble column by Allan Simmons this week, which features my victory at the Easter tournament, one of the 'majors' of the UK tournament scene.

[Coalminers]

Magichour - I will look out for that. I suppose a lot of Listener solvers must also be good at Scrabble (myself excluded). I do know the E M Perrins was UK Scrabble champion in 1985, and she was well up the list of the more successful Listener solvers last year.

[magichour]

I know three other top Scrabblers who are regular solvers, at least two of whom were at the dinner in Chester. There is a natural link between the two, particularly with anagramming skills. Joyce Cansfield, a regular setter for the Times, has also been a Scrabbler for many years, and Poat of Listener-setting fame is well-known as one of the world's best players.

[petefoxes]

Delighted to have finished this puzzle directly after my first ever completion on last week's. Very enjoyable!

[jim360]

I reckon this is one of the harder listeners of the last few months - so to finish it as only your second-ever listener is seriously impressive! Great job pete.

[petefoxes]

Thanks - I imagine I spent a lot more hours working on it than some of you! My BRB arrived today so am looking forward to having a better resource for the next one.

[Alekhine]

Too many guests at Alekhine Towers over the weekend, so another late start for me.

The grid fill was enjoyable, but I wrestled with the endgame. I made several photocopies and created several options, and the word search finally revealed itself.

I hadn't previously heard of one of the potential victims, but Mrs Alekhine confirmed that it may be frequently encountered in a particular TV soap.

[Scorpius]

i finally saw the light when I was on the point of giving up, having wasted a lot of time as a result of taking the instructions too literally. I agree with Staurologist that one of the potential victims is definitely out of sync with the others.

[IainGrace]

Finished. What a feat of construction.