Listener 4243 Pipes By Samuel

[dr b]

Quite a doozy this week but very enjoyable. Not necessary, of course, but I made copious use of the LEN, MID and VLOOKUP functions in Excel to count string lengths, pick out the Nth letter of the clue, and turn numbers into letters and vice versa. Thanks Samuel, or can we call you Sam? or Sammy? or Sammy baby?

[IainGrace]

Well done, Jim.

[Texasetes]

I thought I'd mention that Saturday evening's edition of Counterpoint on Radio 4 was quite interesting.

[Scorpius]

A neatly constructed puzzle from Samuel, fairly typical of his approach to thematic crosswords. Three clues caused me slight concern: I couldn't find convincing confirmation of the definition in the last of the Across message clues; I have a query against the first Down clue, but I won't go into that because it might give something away (or a reply might give something away); lastly the name of the French painter seems incomplete, a bit like referring to an ex French president by 6 letters instead of 8. But I'm not an expert on art so perhaps it's ok.

[emcee]

Late again, this time due to candidates' scripts.

An enjoyable solve with a decent mixture of tough and easy clues. I enjoyed the novelty of the across clues - I've noticed in the past that Samuel does tend to find interesting new ways of extracting letters.

I was lucky in guessing the theme before solving any clues but, not knowing it was correct, it didn't help a jot. I think progress was really made when I solved one of the thematic acrosses, then I knew I was on the right track and the grid was filled pretty quickly afterwards.

Tough puzzle but I enjoyed it. Ta muchly Samuel.

[upsetter]

Enjoyed this challenging puzzle, but happy to wait 3 weeks to see what the first instruction was.
Brilliant Listener.

[Deviant]

Daunting at first sight, but I managed to finish this in one (long) sitting. My favourite of the year so far.

Only one quibble - it also wins the prize for the most pointless highlighting of the year (so far). The chances of anyone getting the final grid without understanding what's going on are virtually zero, so why ask for the highlighting?

[youngoffender]

A very enjoyable Listener, one of the year's best. This was only my second blank slate after 'Lines and Squares', but it became less daunting once I'd worked out what was going on in the Across entries. Creating a grid in Excel and then an endgame copy alongside it really helped. I just hope everyone follows that instruction 'carefully'...

[JackDeCrow]

Anyone still out there shuffling cards, do drop me a line - would be nice to know I'm not the only one! [email protected]

[me99]

A lot of fun - I particularly enjoy carte blanche. But am I missing something? Does anyone else have two alternative solutions at the end? How would you choose between them?

No surprise JackdeCrow is still shuffling cards - I finally got there yesterday!

[jim360]

me99 -- read the preamble carefully.

[contendo]

Glad I started in pencil.

[tenflags]

I always start in pencil Contendo.. not least of all because I make mistakes.
A precise fun puzzle I thought.

[TheBear69]

I do not think anything in the preamble resolves the ambiguity me99 is referring to, but it is resolved.

[iamamoose]

jackdecrow- i have been shuffling cards for three days, just got there...

[iamamoose]

i mean 3 whole days....mainly because i wasn't STRICT and allowed myself to guess

[Scorpius]

JackDeCrow, you're not alone. I'm still shuffling cards, even after getting the title, which confirms what I've done so far by logic alone.

[tramart]

After twenty-odd years of solving the Listener crossword, an unique experience for me - guessing what was to be highlighted without solving a single clue. Fortunately it took until today to finish; much to my relief as I would be dismayed if I finished any earlier than Sunday afternoon. But I now only do the Listener. I assume the Friday-nighters do many more.
The setter's intended final grid-fill seems clear enough, but I don't see that the alternative could be marked wrong as the instruction is not explicit enough.
Puzzled why so many people use M$ excel when Openoffice/Libreoffice Calc is totally free. What comes with the machine, I suppose.

[olichant]

What a fine puzzle!

[olichant]

I do have a technical question on why it is OK to draft the preamble the way it is (and I'm sure it absolutely must be, given the calibre of the setters and the editors!) Would anyone who has finished, and is happy to take a question from a setter's point of view, be happy for me to ping them an email?

[AndrewG-S]

Olichant, please feel free to send me an email - but I can't promise I will be able to answer. My email is [email protected].