Listener 4418: Out Of Line By Sabre

[upsetter]

After two days we have solved 10 clues and managed to enter one letter, although even that might be wrong.
Is anyone else doing any better?

[starwalker]

I have about half a dozen letters in, from 15 clues. The ones that I would like to get are proving to be stubbornly resistant. Hardest puzzle/Sabre for quite some time.

[Pasquin]

For what it's worth, I've solved 19 clues, and have 8 letters in place, but only by making a big assumption about the thematic modification. I'm sitting here trying to convince myself that I'm doing something truly heroic with a grade G.

[Hagen]

I have only ever succeeded in completing one Sabre puzzle, and that was one of his early ones a long while ago. I had a look at this and got nowhere, so decided to wait for comments here before making a serious effort. It's a bad sign that nobody posted a thread until Sunday afternoon (is this a record?) and even more disheartening that none of the regulars have finished it. I think I'll pass!

We need puzzles like this occasionally to sort the men from the boys (and, of course, the women from the girls) and we've had quite a lot of easy puzzles in recent months. Good luck to those who persevere and congrats in advance to anyone who completes it!

[pushmi-pullyu]

I've only got 9 answers and very few useful intersections. Finding it seriously difficult, especially as Word Wizard was unavailable all this morning.

[Scorpius]

I've solved half the clues (mostly a very tough set) and, rather like Pasquin, I've made a guess as to the nature of the modification, but it might be completely wrong. I suspect I have at least two more days' work, IF I persevere.

[tilbee]

This is hard work indeed. Finally close to a completed grid, but final two answers very stubborn, suggesting that there are further levels to this puzzle even once the mode of entering the clues has been determined.

[doorbell]

Got there eventually; a real struggle with some of the clues, but such a well-worked theme from beginning to penny-dropping end. Thanks, Sabre.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Respect, Doorbell!

[AHearer]

Wow, that was tough! Have just limped across the line. I'd actually put this on the 'life is too short' pile on Friday night, then picked at it intermittently during a wet Saturday. As more clues fell and I kept admiring how well they had been written I just had to carry on. Thanks, Sabre, that was a real Listener!

[tilbee]

Final penny now dropped. Thanks to Sabre for a real work-out.

[starwalker]

. . . and he limps over the line, limply. Thanks Sabre. Now to get my life back together.

[Scorpius]

Finally finished. At least the endgame didn't take me long. It's a nice ending, but I wasn't bowled over by it, as I have been by some of Sabre's endgames.

I thought some of the clues were brilliant - notably 28a, 4d, 7d, 18d.

[lyrabelacqua]

An absolute gem, which has just (finally) fallen. Some of the best (ie meanest) clueing I've ever come across. I loved 18dn too, but my personal favourite was 2dn. But there were so many to admire. To be frank, there are still a couple I have yet to parse adequately. A truly great Listener.

[olichant]

Holy moly. What a workout.

Personal favourite clue, amongst many others, was 20d. Stunning all round, with some very tricky cryptic syntax.

Right, back to the Crossword Centre's Round Robin...

[AHearer]

I think my favourite was 18d, but there were many contenders. I note from Jonathan Crowther's 'A-Z of crosswords' that "[Sabre's] main dislike in crosswords is sloppy clue writing" -- sure enough, not a trace of sloppiness here.
I'm glad there was no highlighting or line-drawing: no chance for my usual shooting-self-in-foot by failing to transfer same to fair copy!

[emcee]

I've returned to this, after 24 hours away from it. Still only 20 clues done. I can see it being consigned to the cylindrical filing-cabinet in the corner of the room -- where, it should have gone on Friday evening!

Life's just too short and I can't be bothered spending too many hours trying to preserve a run of 417 completions, even for Mr. Sabre.

[Philoctetes]

Once a theory about entries had been tested, this did grow progessively less sisyphean. Quinaplus was the most productive tool. Not the best week for a Windows update to crunch my Chambers CD!

[s_pugh]

I'll admit to using Quinaplus myself but it is far from complete - if you started at 1dn you'd fall at the first hurdle! An extremely tough puzzle which I think teetered on the brink of fairness at times. Thanks Sabre, but that was a tad on the mean side.

[icynorth]

Thanks, Sabre! Is this an MI5 entrance exam?

I'm finally there - I think. There are two or three I can't fully parse, and solving the heartfelt endgame didn't help.

[emcee]

Well, I got round to solving it (for what it's worth).

I understand the clues but think some are distinctly "off-side", for example, 20d.

Setter trying to be *too* clever has backfired somewhat into being one of his least interesting puzzles.

Probably the hardest for 2016 to date but that doesn't mean it's an AGC contender -- look at some of the outstanding puzzles we've had this year which haven't been half as tough!

Rant over ... sorry Sabre, not impressed.