Listener No4341 What's On By Nod

[Ruthrobin]

This has produced a giggle but it was a tough solve until the message appeared and we are going to have to be very careful with our checking of our final grid. What an amusing and original idea. Many thanks, Nod!

[AHearer]

Sorry, Ruthrobin, I was obviously still typing as you pressed "Submit".

An entertaining puzzle, but I think the device has appeared in various guises before -- perhaps not so all-pervasively. A clever way, though, of diminishing the usefulness of intersecting lights. Good clues, with many of the inserted words well disguised. Puzzling over the title took up more time than it should have. Many thanks, Nod.

[Pasquin]

This was difficult for a while, but the pdm came at me from several directions at once for no obvious reason, and produced a big groan. I've seen something like it before. I wonder how long it would have taken me without any of the hints. Very entertaining, thanks Nod.

[jim360]

With all the cold-solving I'd had the PDM about four hours ago and since then it's been something of a grin to fill in all the gaps. Last one plugged in just now. Thanks Nod.

I think a similar idea appeared in the Magpie last year, but since I didn't do that particular puzzle I can't say I'm complaining.

[Cagey]

A groan from me. Not seen this before, took ages to get from cold solving. Good fun though. Thank you nod

[TheBear69]

I found this very tough long after I had cracked the entry method...but I finally got there. Thanks Nod.

Nudd last week, Nod this week, next week Ned? :-)

[perseverer]

Even after eventually spotting the entry method, which is (allegedly) part of my field of expertise, still struggled with my last few entries, to the point of being convinced for a while that there was an error producing a clash. Perhaps my expertise is out of date!

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, after I posted, we were still solving the last few entries for some time as the final ones were tough and I know exactly what you are referring to Perseverer.

[lyrabelacqua]

Ruthrobin, so you posted before you had finished? Huh?

[AngryUncle]

Jim, I think I know what you meant to say. This is far from being 'something of a grin' for me and has brought on one of my personality changes.

It's all very well having the occasional puzzle that's impossible to begin without a Herculean amount of cold-solving, but after doing that with 20 clues, working out the hint on a balance of probabilities and getting 17 entries into the grid, I thought I'd see how everyone else was getting on.

As I feared, the hard slog has only just begun, with more cold-solving to 'look forward' to, perhaps enlivened by a bit of reverse-solving. It's clearly a work of genius, but I much prefer the PDM(s) to come a lot later than this.

[jim360]

Something of a grind, I meant of course!

It is a bit of a shame, as the idea is a nice one and I shudder to think how much work must have gone into putting it all together. All the same, with very little checking (and indeed at least one sneaky pitfall!) it has felt rather like solving 36 separate clues, some of them very, very tough, and then putting a grid together from the results afterwards.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, sorry Lyrabelacqua - (but had the p.d.m. and a substantial grid). I felt I had to 'come clean' when I saw that jim360 and Bear had much the same experience (with Bear solving at 6 am) - a hard task with the final entries.

[AngryUncle]

As an alternative to this week's torment, may I recommend this month's puzzle in Oxford Today? CAM receives frequent plugs here, so it's only fair, although entries to OT are allowed only from alumni.

The setter is John Higgs: does anyone know if he sets elsewhere under a pseudonym? The puzzle is guaranteed to provide an amusing (and still arguably topical) PDM in the final stage of the endgame, where it should be. Here's the link:
http://www.oxfordtoday.ox.ac.uk/common-room/crossword-%E2%80%94-april-2015

[doctormatt]

Done. Really hard,even though I found the theme early. Like Perseverer, relevant expertise did not help as much as hoped!

[starwalker]

Oh but that was hard, with so much cold solving and some very cleverly hidden extra words which produced all kinds of misdirection. Thanks Nod.

[tilbee]

Like some others had the PDM fairly early, but this did not particularly accelerate the hard slog required to finally resolve some fairly tough clues, with the intersecting lights only giving limited assistance A fair challenge so thanks to Nod.

[contendo]

I've only solved 14 clues but have managed to figure out the hint from the initial letters. I can see that back-solving is going to be quite a challenge. Hope to get there before next week's.

[Cruncher]

Slow-going here too despite sussing the entry method. Finding the answers I have entered not a lot of help towards the missing entries

[sunny-dave]

What fun - even distracted me from fretting about my bust ankle for a while.

Just enough of the clues were (reasonably) amenable to cold-solving to give an insight into the entry method - which then allowed some sort of analysis of the more recalcitrant clues.

Very clever - thanks Nod

[lyrabelacqua]

Phew, there at last. Excellent stuff, but very chewy in the final knockings, with some horribly tight clueing (all fair enough, but VERY tough). Nice to have some of the weekend still left. Well done Nod.

[Philoctetes]

A very clever construction, but surely only barely a crossword. Each checked square leads to 19 options, which, to me, does not amount to "checking". Of course there can be back-analysis, but that is a bigger slog than most, as folk are saying. And, speaking as an utter non-expert in this area, even I know that the hint uses the wrong term. Grumpy, this week - blood pressure