Listener 4241 Skippers By Ifor

[AndrewG-S]

I cannot find a thread for the puzzle so expect I will be redirected. I think I have this all completed although not 100% on the final step, so this needs a bit more thought. Spent ages on a huge thematic red herring. An enjoyable challenge, thanks ifor.

[sunny-dave]

Well that was pretty hard I thought - the gridfill was by no means trivial and the theme eluded me for a good while too - but at least it was a genuine pdm rather than a google slog that revealed it.

Once there the rebuilding and nominal replacement were easy enough and then another flash of inspiration gave the expected thematic number.

Cracking workout - many thanks to Ifor for a very clever puzzle.

dave x

[Alan7777]

Finally found the thematic number. Thanks Ifor for an excellent puzzle.

[magichour]

I was quite late to this but agree that it has been an excellent puzzle. Still struggling with the 'nominal replacement elsewhere' part of the instruction, though I have successfully rebuilt the block of cells and understood the creation of the thematic number. Grid-staring to try to work out that final element.

[Scree]

For a long time I thought I'd be stuck with 43A incomplete, no message found, and no idea how to rebuild blocks or find a thematic number.

Eventually I read the preamble properly and found the message, which didn't help much. This morning I spotted something on Google which at last explained it all. Rebuilding the block of cells was easy enough, as was finding the thematic number ( having spotted a significant number as I researched the Wikipedia entry).

But I too am stuck on the 'nominal replacement elsewhere', and I need to catch tomorrow's post. Saw a promising four-letter name which just needed a letter changing - but it didn't leave a real word in the crossing answer. Hmm...

[Scree]

This shows how unwise it is to trust Wikipedia. I homed in on the need to show the first attempt, realised Wikipedia didn't describe that, and found a fuller story elsewhere. This encouraged me to try a nominal replacement which worked. Fairly impressed by this puzzle!

[jim360]

You can find the relevant nominal replacement in the Wikipedia article if you look carefully enough.

[Scree]

True, but it's such a brief mention that I didn't even realise this was 'the first attempt'.

[crosswhit99]

Don't chastise yourself Scree, The Wiki entry under the operational codeword is much more detailed in that respect.

[Scree]

That's the one I was looking at...

Still, all's well that ends well. Careless talk should not be encouraged.