Listener No. 4420: King's Album By Stick Insect

[AHearer]

Quite a pretty treatment of the theme, with a pleasingly accurate representation in the grid. Fairly straightforward clues meant quite a quick solve, despite the large number of grid entries. Many thanks, Stick Insect.

[AHearer]

Oops -- slightly premature post. I get 24 cells in the objects, not 25. I can force 25, but it doesn't feel right.

[olichant]

I think I'm there - I have a slight doubt about my right-most object, but it looks right, I think. Very enjoyable theme. Thanks, Stick Insect.

[AHearer]

Yes, object means object! Apologies for jumping the gun.

[olichant]

Part of the preamble slightly confuses me, but I'm certain that's my fault and not the preamble's. Think I'll sleep on it.

[upsetter]

The thematic parts were quite fun to fill in and the construction was pretty clever.
Sorry to say that the clues gave no enjoyment at all.

[AHearer]

Wheel out the Zabadak cup!

[Flocker14]

Getting the 25 cells right (if I have) took a bit of tinkering - the leftmost eluded me for a while and was slightly surprising in aspect. But, all in all, very cleverly done indeed and many thanks to Stick Insect.

[Cagey]

I enjoyed this one. Lovely depiction at the end, and I enjoyed the clues. And did not get the theme until right at the end. A lovely final reveal. Thank you Stick insect.

[hankir]

I am no expert but somehow got the grid filled.
I do not have all the misprints.
How any are there?
I have 6,2,?,6,?,4. I have 5 misprints where ? appear.

For me, it is going to be tough to find the objects.

[Hagen]

I was rather daunted by the massive number of clues so thank goodness this turned out to be an easy solve (and no less enjoyable for that). Finding the objects took me almost as long as solving the clues, and I'm still not 100% confident I've got them right. An appropriate theme well executed, nice one Stick Insect.

I find I get on better with setters whose names are animals – Hedge-Sparrow, Little Hare and Stick Insect – and the smaller the better. I'm looking forward to a puzzle by Really Tiny Ant, which would be tailor-made for the likes of me...

[upsetter]

Aw shucks, A Hearer, thanks for the compliment.
Here's another attempt to provoke debate on our perennial bleat about dumbing-down - frankly some of the clues would make a Telegraph solver groan.
Two weeks ago we gave up in despair, even after having cheated extensively from the other blog.
So this is not a pretension to elite status - this was a masterly and entertaining construction, let down a large number of clues that were just too easy.
Perhaps, given that there were so many 'letters towards' (in itself impressive) there ought to have been an additional wrinkle (e.g. unclued entries).

[IainGrace]

Agree that the clues were easy. We were virtually filling them in at will and stopped only to prepare dinner. Like Upsetter, this is not a boast but a gentle note of disappointment. On a separate note, I see that JEG is listed as an Inquisitor winner this week. As occasional winners ourselves including recently, we can report (gift horses and mouths) that the prize of chocolates is like some puzzles - looks challenging but, once unwrapped, there is very little substance to it.

[perseverer]

While I too would have liked the clues to be more difficult, I can also see that space considerations in the newspaper, with the size of the grid, and the number of clues, would have meant the clues would have to be kept short. So, does shorter generally mean easier?

[Hagen]

I forgot to say that my solving was somewhat slowed down by the small size of the grid on the Times website. Couldn't they have made it a bit bigger, or is it time for another visit to the optician?

[x_word_fan]

Too small?
Copy& paste into Word.

[icynorth]

Very enjoyable, thanks Stick Insect!

Yes the clues were easy, but would you really have wanted to solve 60-odd Sabre-esque ones?

[Encota]

Great fun - thanks Stick Insect!

[petefoxes]

Which poster is it who keeps a personal record of how difficult they found the year's puzzles?

I found this on the easy side but enjoyable - thanks, Stick Insect. The clues tumbled partly due to the number of them, partly the emerging hint and partly the high proportion of checked cells.

[HappyUncle]

No complaints from me. I thought it was worth having a few (but by no means all) disappointing clues, as the final stages were very satisfying and made impressively good use of the grid design, with every element - and the amusing hint - spot-on.

Hagen, I am now contemplating the possibility of devising a puzzle using the crucinom of Formicula.

[Hagen]

Go for it, Happy Uncle!