ChatterBank1 min ago
Listener Crossword 4240: Forlor By Nutmeg
41 Answers
Sheer joy! And wholly agree with her sentiments....skilfully put together, and with many a clever clue amongst them (particularly liked 32a and 17d). As ever, gridfill speeds up after PDM and with crossing letters. Many thanks, Nutmeg,...now for the snooker!
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Thanks Nutmeg! Congratulations on having a Listener published just after an EV. Forlor was excellent thoughout.
I have a question about this site: I first searched for 'Listener 4240' - nothing.
Then I searched for just 'Listener' and got lots of hits, but not this discussion.
I thought it strange that there was no posting yet, so I decided to try one more search, this time for 'Forlor'. That worked. Any idea why the search for 'Listener' misses this?
I have a question about this site: I first searched for 'Listener 4240' - nothing.
Then I searched for just 'Listener' and got lots of hits, but not this discussion.
I thought it strange that there was no posting yet, so I decided to try one more search, this time for 'Forlor'. That worked. Any idea why the search for 'Listener' misses this?
It seems you need to Google "Listener Crossword 4240" and that will work, or Forlor as you say. I'm also surprised that there are so few posts so far - but find no "rival" thread. Yes, the extra letters are difficult to unravel, but one can fill grid without getting them all (or even realising their relevance)....Bizarre.
Until the theme occurred to me I found this very tough going -- probably rely far too much on crossing entries which isn't always helpful when the modification is significant -- but when the breakthrough came (guessing at the phrase to be highlighted before I'd filled it all in) everything started to fall into place nicely. Thanks Nutmeg!!
Pretty tough, with lots of indirect definitions or wordplay elements. Once I got a couple of the thematic answers I made better progress. Despite the apparently straightforward wordplay I still haven't managed to get 5 across. Using TEA reveals absolutely zilch. I hope trawling through the latest Chambers will get me there, but I'm not looking forward to that.
I'm not keen on 2-letter abbreviations being used where one of the letters turns out to be the superfluous one. Seems inelegant to me (and others).
I'm not keen on 2-letter abbreviations being used where one of the letters turns out to be the superfluous one. Seems inelegant to me (and others).
I got finished this afternoon after a slow start, due to entertaining last night. This was a highly engaging crossword, with some tricky clueing, but the theme came to me quite early. I made life more difficult for myself, by miscounting my thematically treated answers, so trying to make one more out of an unpromising clue. I haven't got the message from the extra letters, but am quite sure of my grid etc. so might not bother. (I always enter Listener + the number when looking for the thread.)
Finally got 5 across after guessing the second word. I could have saved myself some time and frustration by using the Chambers CD ROM special search facility instead of TEA. Definitely one of the harder puzzles of the year so far.
Failing to make sense of the message from the extra letters isn't a bar to completing the grid correctly, but those still wanting to make sense of it should google the last two words and a very well-known thematic name.
Failing to make sense of the message from the extra letters isn't a bar to completing the grid correctly, but those still wanting to make sense of it should google the last two words and a very well-known thematic name.
A very nice puzzle, and certainly one can complete the grid without realizing what the extra letters mean. But, I think this pushes the idea that the Listener should be doable without access to the Internet to the limit. I can't imagine how long it might take to connect the "extra letter message" to the theme without a search engine at your disposal.
I suppose discussion of that idea should wait until the solution is published as it would be too easy to give too much away discussing specifics.
I suppose discussion of that idea should wait until the solution is published as it would be too easy to give too much away discussing specifics.
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