Listener 4272 - Bun Fight By Kea

[TheBear69]

Thanks for a good challenge, Kea. It was a nice challenge to determine the answers that had extra letters and not easy to get the two items from the extra letters.

I am a bit concerned about what I feel is ambiguity in the instruction. Are we supposed to write beneath the grid:

a) The word (obtained from the unused extra letters) that describes the goings-on

or

b) The goings-on itself.

The GOINGS-ON: label would suggest b) but I fear it's a) to prove we got that word...

[Monkmonk]

I'm struggling because I seem to have 18 entries that have become non-words instead of 19. I think you should write the word that describes the goings-on.

[AHearer]

I agree -- this was entertaining, if not quite as tough of some of Kea's offerings. The construction is very clever, though. I think the word formed from the extra letters should go under the grid, given that the goings-on itself is clearly indicated by one of the words 'revealed'.

[TheBear69]

19 non-words is accurate.

I am still debating the merits of the descriptor vs the thing described. Not only is there the GOINGS-ON label, but the subordinate clause "which must be written below the grid" is closer to "goings-on" so that interpretation is better grammatically. Also, there is indirect proof that one has the correct descriptor in how one resolves an otherwise ambiguous entry.

[Ruthrobin]

Monkmonk, I am in the same position. We must be doing something wrong.

[TheBear69]

Shoot; I re-counted and I too have only 18!

[Ruthrobin]

19!

[TheBear69]

Aha! Now I have 19!

[Monkmonk]

We needed to be careful.

[Grubb]

Not in the FNC. The same problem as the others but all is obvious this morning. The final grid is very satisfying.
Another excellent, challenging puzzle - what a good year it has been. Many thanks, Kea.

[emcee]

I don't think there is any ambiguity about what should be written in the space below the grid.

Another fine puzzle as we have come to expect from Kea, although, perhaps, he has mellowed somewhat over the last couple of years. Still, a brilliant construction from the master.

Many thanks, Kea.

[trux]

Greetings from a slightly drizzly Hong Kong. Copied grid out and have filled it all bar one cell, and have done all the grid maniplations without identifying any of the thematic items from the letter pairs. Will leave those for tomorrow.... Definitely a most neat construction, so many thanks to Kea. Btw, there is no FNC here.....

[IainGrace]

21 is a pleasingly neat clue.

[olichant]

I enjoyed 21a too, and I really liked 3d. And, of course, the whole thing is terrific. I agree that the second sentence of the preamble is open to interpretation, though I know what I will submit.

[jim360]

Well, at least I'm not staring at an empty grid for hours... still a few to solve but made rather swifter progress than with last week's offering.

[jim360]

Made it to the end. What a delightful finish!

[aldanna]

This was fun! Thank you, Kea. I feel sure it's all correct and am not sure if I can face counting the 18/19 that gave such problems.

[jim360]

It occurred to me that the counting needs to be spot-on. How cruel. Time to print off another copy and be more careful about the moving, clearly!

[contendo]

Filled the grid apart from 31d which is still holding me up. As for the thematic items, I reckon the omitted letters from the across clues alone give over a million permutations, so it may take me a while to go through them.
Some brilliant clues and, yes, 3 dn is my favourite.

[tilbee]

Like Contendo 31d was the last I solved and I struggled with this for some time. Light only finally dawned after I had identified the theme and worked backwards from this. Thought this was a fairly tough challenge, and most enjoyable, so thanks to Kea.

[tilbee]

I calculate the number of permutations of omitted letters from the across clues as well under 100,000. I won't give an exact number nor my reasoning to reach this, since this may give too much away. However given the requirement to produce real words and the associated sequencing of vowels and consonants this soon reduces very drastically.