Listener 4285: Now You See It By Mr E

[AHearer]

A nice playful offering by Mr E. Nothing too difficult in the clues, but I found spotting the way the other four fitted took far longer than it should have. Luckily I spotted the final one fairly quickly. Thanks, Mr E, that was fun.

[BobHWW]

Thanks Mr E. Not too difficult and a nice PDM when I finally discovered what was going on.

[TheBear69]

I agree that the grid fill was not too difficult, but the final step, I found to be quite difficult to suss. Well done, Mr E

[Ruthrobin]

I share the Bear's feelings. The gridfill was very speedy but the rather nice little endgame took me a night of thinking - Many thanks, Mr E

[olichant]

And I'm in exactly the same boat as the Bear and RuthRobin. Good fun in the end.

[emcee]

Not too difficult - Mr. E's clues have had a tendency to be brutish in the past. I thought the final stage would take an age but luckily homed in on the correct answer within a few minutes.

Thanks, Mr. E, for an enjoyable challenge and a nice PDM.

[emcee]

Type Your Answer Here...

[perseverer]

Took a long time for the PDM as to what the jumbles were all about, but then the final step came quickly.

[jim360]

All sorted now, thanks Mr E.

[tilbee]

Yes the endgame certainly took much longer than the gridfill, not helped by the fact that I was led down a calendar related blind alley, but now all finally resolved. A satisfying final PDM so thanks to Mr E.

[midazolam]

Concur Tilbee. Completely sucked into the red herring as well. Even the clue number fits.
I will never forget the golf themed puzzle from MrE, unfortunately this does not compare in terms of endgame. Havent we seen 'breast stroke' as a clue recently (I know it is not copied as the puzzle would have been sent a couple of years ago).

[easterfool]

Thoroughly enjoyed this as the solo mix and then the way of getting the other four surfaced, but I am a bit worried that there could be problems over the final stage. I have an answer and am reasonably happy about it but can't find a suitable reference in BRB. Am I alone in that?

[perseverer]

Should be no problem at all with the final answer.

[s_pugh]

This was enjoyable and I can't believe how long it took me to suss what was going on till the PDM.

However I can't believe Easterfool is the only one to have spotted a potential problem, as my first option for the word to be highlighted is not in BRB but is certainly in the Oxford Online. And Chambers is only ever a primary reference, not a catch-all. I'm 'nurturing' the idea here that Easterfool has spotted the same as me. - though who knows there could be a 3rd option I've missed!

Further thought threw up the option that I'm assuming Mr E is looking for and which works in a different sense again. Still all in all a fun challenge.

[aldanna]

With a full grid (apart from two squares) I had decided to give up as I had no idea what to do with the end game. Then....sudden pdm as I was cooking the carrots, and it all fell into place easily. Good fun, thank you Mr E.

[IainGrace]

Hmm. Two or three clues to solve, including a jumble (presumably the key one) and no idea yet what is going on. Think we have 38 across - did others have difficulty parsing it and were there doubts about 26 down?

[IainGrace]

Ignore previous comment about specific clues. We had made an error.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, there seems to be a perfectly valid alternative for the final move (that is in the Oxford on-line but not in Chambers) I think it must always be the setter's concern that his solution might not be unique. Obviously the wise move would be to use the Chambers word but if you haven't seen it and enter the other, that might give the editors and Mr Green a bit of a problem.

[Scorpius]

Pretty stumped by this. I still have an unsolved clue (29) and part of the wordplay to 1dn, and the definition to 35 escape me. As for the jumbling, I can see no rationale at all. I suspect this will be a "no submission".

[pushmi-pullyu]

Aldanna, I think I need to go and cook some carrots.

[Contrarian]

Given the rather open-ended nature of the English language, perhaps in this sort of case the setter ought to specify that the required word is actually in Chambers.