Listener No 4237 Restitution By Schadenfreude

[trux]

Very well crafted grid with some devilish elements. Clues not too difficult but quite a lot of cold solving required before one can start hazarding any sort of gridfill. Much enjoyed the PDM after which relatively quick progress to the end. This type of cipher device seems to be becoming a bit of a trademark for SF. Many thanks for the work-out. Back to the golf!

[IainGrace]

Making decent headway with the clues but we note warnings that much cold solving still required as a preliminary. Looks intriguing.

Meanwhile learned from The Observer today that we are a £25 book token to the good, thanks to winning Azed. We can add this to our modest portfolio of wins with Azed, the Listener and the Times, but yet to win an Araucaria.

[fallster]

Wonderful puzzle. Hard but fair. Something is wrong with my second decoded word, but will get there eventually I hope.

[fallster]

And as often happens, discovered my mistake seconds after posting.

[Staurologist]

The real beauty of this puzzle lies in the superb grid construction: a complete thematic set incorporated with elegant symmetry, proper words throughout, everything just the right length. Good clues added the icing. I had only one minor reservation, which was that I would have expected the encoded instruction to have resulted in more extensive work than it did.

The theme emerges clearly if you write the correct letters beside the rows and under the columns, when only one letter appears to be out of place (but isn't, of course). It wouldn't have been too difficult to rectify that.

I knew the theme from having seen my daughter perform in a production of Stephen Sondheim's relevant work at the Edinburgh Festival a few years ago. It's not often performed, but worth catching when it comes round.

[aldanna]

After lots of cold-solving I have plenty of answers but no idea where to put them. Faced with the general enthusiasm for this crossword I have reluctantly abandoned my idea that the grid printed has to be faulty.

[starwalker]

I can only echo what has already been posted - an excellent puzzle with some tough but fair clues, with a delightful and unambiguous ending.

[Whenland]

Although not finished, we're well on the way, thanks to an early PDM which after a few minutes analysis quite beautifully revealed where the blank entries had to be. Congratulations to IainGrace - we have won that one twice but none of the others, yet!

[jockie]

Stunninger and stunninger - 2013 just keeps getting better. Thanks to Schadenfreude and all the other setters who have made this a vintage year.

[teuchter2]

I have managed to get this finished finally and agree that it was an amazing construction and very enjoyable. I filled the grid quickly after cold-solving all the clues and re-reading the rubric. I came to the code via the answers to the blank entries rather than the way it was intended I suspect. I found it quite difficult to work out the coded instruction as my printer is rather low on ink, so the letters were not as clear as they might be!

[emcee]

Late starter to this one, but what a great puzzle! I haven't the foggiest idea what the Jody clue is referring to but all will become clear (I hope) when the solution is out. Fortunately this didn't spoil the rest of the puzzle.

Thanks to Schadenfreude for his/ her usual brilliant offering.

[contendo]

I'm obviously missing the glaringly obvious, but the preamble starts by telling you to fill in the grid, but and as the word lengths don't fit the available spaces I'm not sure how to set about doing so. If you're still there Aldanna I'll join you in a sulk.

[AndrewG-S]

Contendo I think you need to re read the preamble a bit more carefully. If you are still stuck feel free to drop me an email ([email protected]).

[the_heisman]

Excellent crossword and the disparity between the clue lengths and the grid provides good fun in resolving them. Regarding the message, being right has never seemed so wrong!

[perseverer]

Re the Jody clue, you have to look up the corrected version of the misprint in the BRB

[crosswhit99]

I suspect the coded instruction was an afterthought, Staurologist, to prevent completion of the 4 blank entries without having identified the correct misprints.

[contendo]

Just about there now. A beautifully constructed crossword. Thanks for your nudge AG-S.

[dr b]

Me work puzzle.
Me like puzzle.
Puzzle good.

[emcee]

Thanks perseverer.

I did look her up but thought the answer didn't really fit the bill - the nationality of the answer is more American surely? Perhaps I'm being too picky or missing something (or someone) hugely obvious through sheer ignorance!

[emcee]

... having thought about it a bit more, I think I've been too sidetracked by a TV character from "Dallas".

[sunny-dave]

Wow - what a stunner.

The slog of cold solving was more than made up for by the brilliance of the endgame and the beauty of the construction.

Thanks to Schadenfreude for a very entertaining few hours indeed.