Listener 4260 Nuts And Bolts By Mango

[perseverer]

Grid just about filled - theme understood - now I just have to make proper sense of the preamble!

Well worth persevering!

[dr b]

Quite amazing how it all comes together. After reading the preamble 4 times I was not hopeful but in the end it all makes sense.

[emcee]

Yes, I have a virtually complete grid and am getting to grips with the, at first, daunting preamble. Have a good idea about the theme.

Enjoying it thus far.

[emcee]

All done: this has been a really good puzzle. The preamble, once the penny drops, makes perfect sense; stick with it as you'll find it rewarding in the end!

Another quality puzzle from the Mango-men.

[tilbee]

Surprised to see so few posts so far, all wrapped up this afternoon. Final step was to identify the reoriented six letters. A Listener truly of the classic style and very enjoyable, thanks to Mango.

[Scorpius]

I stumbled on the theme about 75% of the way through, but although I've solved all the clues apart from one of those lacking a definition, one unclued entry in my grid (the only word that will fit) does not have any of the remaining letters from the list of unchecked letters.
Although I've got only some of the relevant letters I can guess the device. As for the older passive participant, while I can guess at the name, I cannot confirm it because I haven't located the first name in the grid. Hmmm.

I've spent about 6 hours on this so far, but it looks as though I've got quite a lot of puzzling to do, particularly with that unclued entry.Did anyone else have similar problems with the given unchecked letters?

[Simplex]

Excellent. Some delightfully misleading clues, and unravelling the pre-ramble was a puzzle in itself. And a nice touch of a final penny dropping. Reminiscent of the Listeners of yesteryear. Thanks, Mango.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Hats off to you guys - I'm not even halfway to filling the grid and have absolutely no idea where it's headed. But I shall take my cue from Perseverer and keep at it.

[AHearer]

A very nice puzzle, with the two very neatly connected events and a cutely worded preamble. Many thanks, Mango.

[jockie]

Yes, a fine addition to the Listener canon. The only (unimportant) fly in the ointment is that I was able to complete this without solving the third of the thematic clues. I still don't know what it is, but the thing is correctly finished. I expect it'll come to me when I least expect it. Nice one Mango!

[TheBear69]

Another superb Listener; it's been an excellent year!

Assuming I have the correct surname, I am not sure that 'passive' is an apt description of that person's participation in the event.

[Arcticpenguin]

Took a while to sort everything out but easily my favourite puzzle of 2013.
Quite an amazing construction/idea. Thought the hardest bit was sorting out the 3 clues that weren't even entered in the grid.

[Ruthrobin]

We could only start this today and it has taken me ages but, with the help of TEA (yes - a wonderful device) I have just seen the light. What a beautifully constructed puzzle!

[Scorpius]

It didn't take long to see where I'd gone wrong in the choice of one of the omitted letters, so the remaining 4 unchecked letters slotted in nicely to give what I'd been searching for. I also found the third misrepresented thematic item, so any uncertainties I had are now resolved.

A very fine puzzle integrating the two events. What a pity that the other grid is ditched. Although the puzzle was tough, I thought the clues were very fair. One difficult bit was finding a source to confirm the name of the younger participant. Re TheBear's comment, the third participant is passive for the short duration of the event, so I wouldn't quibble with the preamble's use of 'passive'.

Thanks to the Mango team (I think it's a team).

[aldanna]

Well done everybody! I've given up on this -just too many complications for me. All I managed was to put one letter in the grid.

[pushmi-pullyu]

All done except for the three non-entries but I'm pretty sure I know what the common definition is and I can guess at the misprints. What a brilliant puzzle, well worth persevering.

[jim360]

I started to try filling in the grid on the basis of entries that didn't clash (obviously I may have got the wrong orientation, but my hope was just to reduce the amount of cold-solving). Not sure how it's working, as when last I checked there was no fit for one of the I answers, either as an eleven- or a twelve-letter word/ phrase. Hmm...

This one is proving very tricky.

[Mesnilpat]

I'm making slow progress, no pdm yet. No matter how I orient the answers I have, one entry appears to be unintelligible. Should I give up now or will this resolve itself?

[s_pugh]

Mesnilpat - one entry does indeed appear unintelligible but yes it does resolve itself. I'm all there now bar the device which has me well and truly beaten at the last hurdle for the umpteenth time. Yet another wasted effort. A fantastic construction though by Mango.

[Mesnilpat]

Thanks s_pugh, I have a feeling I will fail at a rather earlier hurdle than you.

[Scorpius]

The grid is such a magnificent achievement that I would urge solvers to persevere. I don't whether this will help others, but I worked on two copies of the grid simultaneously, which meant that the cells were far less cluttered and I could get a better grip on things.