Listener No 4397: We'll Always Be Together By Flying Tortoise

[AHearer]

Thanks, Flying Tortoise (glad you weren't used in the experiment -- if it really took place). Nice to have a hands-on puzzle again. A fairly straightforward set of clues, and very clear instructions.

[olichant]

Initial quibble aside (and I agree with Scorpius about 1a) I really enjoyed this. Great theme. Thanks, Tortoise.

[aldanna]

Really enjoyed this fun puzzle. Thanks to Flying Tortoise.

[Whenland]

We thoroughly enjoyed it too. Thank you Flying Tortoise.

[tristram37]

This puzzle strikes me as a classic example of the trend in Listener Crosswords where the "endgame" assumes a greater importance than the crossword puzzle itself. The trend is not new - i remarked on it to the late Derek Arthur when he was one of the checkers, and he agreed with me but said they had to deal with the puzzles they were sent; I suppose that being an old fossil who started solving and submitting back in the 70s I have failed to move with the times. But it is not necessary to have a complicated endgame to have a really difficult puzzle. Of its sort I thought this puzzle was very clever - even to think up the idea was pretty smart. But the clues didn't really provide much of a challenge, and I do regret that.

[sunny-dave]

Nice enough - but it's the second consecutive puzzle where the final grid is gibberish apart from the manipulated/altered words.

I'm sure that in both cases it would have been nigh on impossible to ensure that the final processing left a full grid of proper words, but it still feels a bit untidy to me.