Listener No 4314 Renewable Energy By 'eck

[Ruthrobin]

What a brilliant use of the circular grid. This has been a remarkable piece of compiling and an extremely difficult puzzle which became easier as we progressed (suddenly dramatically so!). Congratulations to 'Eck for a stunning piece of setting.

[lyrabelacqua]

By 'Eck indeed. Extremely chewy, but very satisfying at the end. Loved it.

[jim360]

The relative silence on this one shows just how hard it's been. One for the die-hard Listener solvers only, I expect, but a remarkable construction.

[perseverer]

Quite brilliant! If you had all the PDMs early on you might think it not too difficult, but clearly not many of us did.

[AHearer]

Yes, that was tough. Some very hard, but totally fair, clues. I took a long time in sorting out 35, and in seeing how the 40 cells were cryptically suggested. A very nice construction -- and I did like the little touch of the non-amendment. Thanks, 'Eck, for helping a horribly wet day to pass by.

[Vagans]

Phew! Keep going: it's worth it... Great puzzle.

[doctormatt]

Absolutely brilliant: I marvel that anyone could have conceived this from start to end. Ingenious on every level.

[upsetter]

Another fantastic listener.
Well over an hour for the first 3 cold solves followed by a slow trickle and then backwards and forwards between the theme and some very tricky and satisfying clues.

[Scorpius]

I very nearly threw in the towel on this one as I cannot say I was enjoying the mammoth struggle get anywhere at all. After a long time I had very little of coherence from the scattered misprints I'd identified, but then I noticed two things about the grid, and acting on a hunch I filled around 25 cells straight off, which led me to the finish. The thematic reference is a favourite of mine.

I wondered why the instruction hadn't been to highlight 56 cells in an appropriate colour, which would seem to me to be thematically a more complete and satisfying solution.

[starwalker]

By Eck, but that was tough going. Some very tricky clues, but never giving the feeling that the end was out of reach. Tremendous.

[UglyUncle]

This has been really tough going, harder even than Elementary Deduction, but the title, choice of grid, hidden references and thematic treatments are all utterly brilliant.

But alas I fear I shan't finish it. With 32 and D still unsolved, I have only identified 38 thematic cells and there's no way the two not yet filled are going to bring me up to the required quota! I must have gone wrong somewhere, but with such fiendish mis-direction as in the clues for 4 and 37 (which required a re-parsing to prove I was still on the right track) I am not optimistic.

[UglyUncle]

And of course all I had to do was wander into another room and my brain produced the solutions to 32 and D (with just a hint of a sneer at my previous bafflement, I felt). But I still have only 39 cells to highlight ...

[sunny-dave]

By 'eck, that were 'ard.

A very long, slow grind towards enlightenment - not helped by identifying a very plausible alternative novel (one with a very famous 'chapter 21') and then spending several hours trying to find the quotes from the few words I'd got in the first misprints I found.

As has already been said - if you are struggling, keep going - it gets a lot easier once the grid starts to be a bit more populated & the pennies drop.

All done now - I agree with scorpius about the highlighting :)

Dave

[Staurologist]

Excellent. I was put off the original source material I considered because of the chapter numbering and went instead to The Da Vinci Code, whose 21st chapter could possibly have been relevant. However, I soon realized that we were being directed to literature of a higher order and counted the chapters properly. What a pleasure to re-read a novel that I haven't read for many years and to be reminded how great it is.

[UglyUncle]

Aha, I see I was taking the moniker's cryptic qualities at face value. The 40 cells are in a place I hadn't looked at closely enough. All done, with many thanks to 'Eck.

[Cruncher]

Over the hill with this one now after some very slow progress and some incorrect assumptions about the misprints which sent me scouring the web for quotations about Buick Skylarks on which subject I am now something of an expert

[olichant]

I'm cheekily checking in here because I am finding this inpenetrable and wanted to see how everyone else was getting on! I'm as close to giving up on a Listener as I have ever been. I will trudge gamely on.

[olichant]

My crossword skills might of course be improved if I learnt to spell "impenetrable"...

[emcee]

Only really started this yesterday and, by 'eck, what a puzzle. Pretty much all sorted -- just need to suss how the 40 cells cryptically relate to the moniker.

Very tough but a puzzle I didn't want to put down. Persevering with chipping away at the fragments of the puzzle does reveal the hidden treasure in a rewarding way. So, to all those struggling, carry on, it's well worth it.

Thanks, 'eck, for a brilliant construction.

[emcee]

... and, as is so often the case, soon after posting the answer announces itself. Very nice finishing touch, 'eck.

[fallster]

Very hard clues, but got there. Except for the highlighting part. Maybe know which they are but no idea why.