Listener 4400: Three Steps To Heaven By Dysart

[starwalker]

I'm not really surprised that no one has posted yet, as this was something of a toughie. I think that I have it all now (at least I have a grid that fulfills the requirements). At first I thought that it was borderline on unfairness, being carte blanche plus twelve modified entries on a theme to be discovered. Now, I'm not so sure. Thanks Dysart.

[s_pugh]

I struggled as much to find this thread as I did completing the puzzle! An absolute gem of a carte blanche, which I know some people aren't keen on (a bit like me with numericals) but managed to put it all together after a lot of cold solving and the PDM of the three steps saw me home. Even the bar and word count worked first time. Excellent puzzle, thanks Dysart.

[AHearer]

Like s_pugh, I struggled to find this thread, and nearly repeated my faux pas of last week. Mind you, compared with the puzzle finding the thread was a doddle. After a couple of hours last night I had about half the top half filled in (not all correctly, as it turned out). But when the source became evident it was easy to make a couple of corrections and limp to a full grid. Luckily putting the bars in was not nearly as hard as I had feared. I'm left wondering why Dysart decided to avoid a well-known abbreviation and go for 44/56 rather than 46/52. Do the numbers have some significance that I've missed, or was it an arbitrary choice? Thanks for a tough challenge, Dysart.

[Hagen]

I'm glad it wasn't just me that found this hard! After two hours of not having a single definite grid entry I was on the point of giving up, then the penny thundered down and all became clear. It was the sort of satisfying PDM, where you can congratulate yourself and the setter, that is the essence of a good Listener. I'd say the effort expended was worth it for this alone.

I ended up with the right number of words but two extra bars. The only way I've managed to resolve that is to extend two words, one of which becomes a slang word defined on the internet but not in the standard dictionaries. Not sure that's right but it'll do.

I'm sure this theme's been done before somewhere - in Listener, EV or IQ.

[tristram37]

Could the 44 words in the final grid be anything to do with the fact that the puzzle is number 4400?

[fyellin]

Wow, that was hard. But what a great idea.

[tnap]

Just got back off holiday to be met with this one! The PDM came relatively early, but I spent ages with 44 words and 58 bars before finally spotting the 2 one-letter extensions required. All in all, a really great Listener. Thanks Dysart.

[perseverer]

A masterpiece of construction, which, stating the obvious, becomes much easier once you spot the source, but still with traps for the unwary.

[HappyUncle]

Not Happy this week but don't have time to retrieve alternative persona. After cold-solving 39 clues - and my word they were tough, though entirely fair - and seeing two of the possible alterations (but not understanding them), I have only two across lines (one incomplete) and a hanging garden of seven intersecting downs. What in the name of the wee man are we supposed to do? Kudos to those who've completed it, but for me Life is Too Short.

[olichant]

By contrast, I'm very happy indeed. It took a great deal of cold-solving, to be sure - and I wasn't familiar with the theme - but absolutely fair once the pennies had dropped, via a few self-inflicted red herrings. And what great clues.

[Flocker14]

My experience was similar to Hagen's - particularly the last step. It was a relief to finally drop this into the postbox. In the final grid I was left with two apparently thematic elements which seeemed to point to a third which wasn't there so I'm by no means certin that what I submitted is correct even though I had the 44/56. But as Hagen says "it'll do"! All in all, though, a hugely clever construction- if you're prepared to dedicate a lot of time and effort - and in my case it was a lot!

[jockie]

A lot of the Usual Suspects aren't commenting on this one - I wonder why. I found it the hardest of the year so far, and spent too long trying to interpret cruciverbally the late Mr Cochrane's Three Steps to Heaven (sticking an X in for the third one being the only "obvious" way forward). If this was a deliberate red herring it sure fooled me. But too much cold solving (I needed 44 before the PDM) marred it for this solver.

[crucifer]

Wow. I was on the point of giving up several times but I'm glad I stuck with it. 40 clues cold-solved before beating the grid repeatedly with a metaphorical sledgehammer until it started letting me in. Toughest of the year so far (I'm guessing a D in Magpie terms) but none the worse for that in the end.

[upsetter]

We needed considerable assistance to complete the grid, so didn't bother much with the bars as we aren't going to submit.
By far the hardest this year.

[Encota]

Loved this one. Definitely Hard - in the top 3 hardest for me in 2016; as usual I let cold-solving continue for too long (43/50); but all very very enjoyable. "Quite a three-pipe problem" (and needing more like 3 days rather than Sherlock's 50 minutes!).

[Philoctetes]

Obviously possible, but very close to unfair. Yes, once the source became evident it was impossible not to guess at the modifications, but even that was not straightforward. It is not really a crossword if nearly 90% of the clues have to be cold-solved. I need a cup of tea.

[IainGrace]

In the sceptical category here. More or less worked out what is going on, but such a slog that not sure we care about finishing it. More satisfaction for the setter than the solver?

[icynorth]

Tough in every respect. I spent a long time arranging possible down answers along the top row before I got the lead (and the title helped in this respect). Then it was a very long slog completing the grid.

I had perfectly sound alternative answers for 'Elder apprentice misses Turkey' and 'Old Middle-Eastern ruler shot controlling military operation', and these held me up for a long time.

But the construction is most impressive (it kind of had to be after that amount of punishment). Thanks, Dysart.

[petefoxes]

There were some elements of this which seemed to be hard just for the sake of it, e.g. the clues not being separated into across and down. The clues themselves were very hard and I think I was a bit lucky in making an attempt with about 1/3 unsolved, and it turning out to be on the right track.

Not sure I enjoyed it with so much cold-solving, but there is some satisfaction looking back on the completed product. Thanks, Dysart.