Listener No. 4357: Aft By Nutmeg

[AHearer]

Some fairly straightforward clues, with a lucky guess at 1d and 27d leading inevitably to 17, made this a quick solve. I was held up for a while by 14d and 24d, but I'm looking forward to a bit of colouring. Thanks for some nice entertainment, Nutmeg.

[starwalker]

Fun and with varying degrees of challenge in the clues. Won't say too much more as it would be easy to give the theme away. Thanks Nutmeg. Hope that my felt tips haven't dried out.

[olichant]

I very much enjoyed this - especially the use of the single dots, which I thought was a nice touch. Hope everyone here has a great weekend.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, Nutmeg's typical lovely range of very fair cluing and an entertaining theme. Very enjoyable and we, too, will enjoy the colouring. Many thanks, Nutmeg.

[trux]

Thanks, Nutmeg, for a fun puzzle on a theme i have aLways enjoyed. 14dn was also my last clue to finish (although it's not really all that fiendish). Not sure if I truly have all the necessary colourers/shaders so glad that some latitude will be allowed.

[upsetter]

We enjoyed this.
It was a perfect newcomers' puzzle, with no weak clues.
Thanks, Nutmeg.

[jim360]

13ac was also a bit obscure, it seemed to me, although not an unfair clue.

Anyway, a nice puzzle -- confused a bit to start with but once the theme became clear things fell into place fairly rapidly. I suppose there's some relief that a couple of other colour-related 17s haven't been included, which while justified also makes it a little less of a pain finding all the required colours!

Might have been nice if the final grid represented the 35th 17... ?

[cross_lover]

Have to admit I'm somewhat confused. No probs with the unorthodox entry but then preamble says there are a further 5 of the 17s to find. I've got 4 which add up to the required number of cells. Also I cannot see the significance of the dots - presumably the words they replace have sone relevant meaning, but it escapes me. Hmmm...

[upsetter]

Cross_lover - we know exactly what you are talking about, having at one point entertained the ludicrous notion that the preamble should have said 'four'.
Do persist and all will become rewardingly clear (if it hasn't already).

[s_pugh]

I too could only find 4 adding up to the required total (and feared another cock-up in the setting department) – leading me to check here. And then everything became blindingly obvious thanks in no small part to Wikipedia. Most enjoyable, not especially difficult but good fun and best of all wholly unambiguous. I hope a lot of latitude is allowed as I’ll struggle with one of the colourings and would hate to be marked down just because I don’t have a suitable pen.

[Cruncher]

Puzzled by the title. Rest was a lot of fun. Off to hunt the stationery shops of Malaysia for requisite tools.

[borealis]

Yes, good fun.
I will be most interested to see how Dave Hennings manages to represent one of the colour/shades so that it can be seen on a screen in the "Listen with Others" blog in three weeks time!
Thanks, Nutmeg.

[UglyUncle]

I'm surprised to find comments from only ten contributors. I thought this was a fine puzzle, with just enough uncertainty about the unorthodox entry and the fifth 17 to keep the enjoyment going right up to the final PDMs. The theme isn't a new one: I've seen 26 done before for a start - so to speak - and a stickler might point out that it is wrongly positioned in this grid, but the treatment was new to me, and very satisfyingly so.

[olichant]

I admit that I didn't get the title, either - will sleep on it.

And can I make the semi-regular Magpie plug? Looks to be a great selection of puzzles this month - and a very interesting editorial.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, Olichant. May I second your Magpie plug. The editorial seems to group this board, which I think we 'police' fairly effectively as far as spoilers go, with TSTMNBM (which spells out Listener endgames and gives direct answers to questions). I feel that those of us who communicate with each other here may have clear consciences. s_pugh, if you saw the quantity of exchanges that take place between setter and editors (perhaps you are a setter and you do?), I think you would not fear that that sort of 'cock-up' could occur (even if there have been issues of late - like that missing column - I don't think that happened at the setting/ editing level).

[UglyUncle]

Cruncher and Oli: I hadn't actually worked out what the game was with the title when I first posted. But I have now.

[olichant]

Ah, got it. Very good!

[icynorth]

I agree it's a nice puzzle for a newcomer, but I confess my heart sank a little when I saw this theme again.

And is there really any new insight to be gained from the colouring? Apart from manufacturing the trap mentioned earlier, I see little value in it. The theme should be clear enough to anyone that's filled the grid.

But I enjoyed the grid-fill - thanks Nutmeg.

[aldanna]

A fun puzzle (I can't get the title either, though). Like others, I stalled a bit on the 5 17's instruction but all sorted now - thanks to Himself, I have reluctantly to admit. Hope there's plenty of latitude on the artwork!

[Cagey]

I rather enjoyed this one. At my folks for the week, and so having one that was a less esoteric theme was good. For some reason my dad takes exception to the idea of unusual themes or pieces of music for things like this. As with others title was the last thing to come.

[Philoctetes]

Add me to the title staring group!
@Icynorth - given the glee and almost childish excitement even the old lags here seem to display when asked to dig out their crayons, it is a shame colouring in is such an infrequent lesson at this school.