Listener No. 4429: Battleships By Paddock

[AHearer]

That took longer than it should: for some reason the NE and SW corners were, for me, much harder than the other two. A nice idea (though an icy shiver ran down my spine as I tried to imagine how this game might have been implemented using the traditional shooting method -- thank goodness the amount of space available in the paper precluded that!). Many thanks, Paddock: I think this is a debut, but whether it is or not I look forward to your next.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, the north-east corner has taken me ages. Sinking the ships wasn't as tough as I initially thought it was going to be. This took me back to hours of stolen time when we played this in class during dull lessons. Many thanks, Paddock.

[Hagen]

I agree with A Hearer that this took longer than it should. I don't want to be a grump in the season of goodwill, but I felt strongly that having the replacement words as jumbles - which meant several possibilities in some cases - made for an unnecessary complication. Unless I've missed something the replacement words weren't thematic, so I can't see why we had to go through such a lengthy and (to me) rather tedious step to get to a quick but satisfying endgame. I thought the clues were excellent but found them very tough, so I didn't really welcome what I saw as an unnecessary obstacle so close to the finishing line. I may well be in a minority here - I hope so.

I don't know if or when I'll get time to do next week's, so I wish you all a joyful Christmas and look forward to reading more of your enlightening and interesting comments on the Listener in 2017.

[starwalker]

So much thematic material in the clues that I felt positively seasick ! I agree about the NE corner, but it did not distract from what is an impressive debut. Lost of fun and never seeming to be beyond reach. Thanks Paddock.

[emcee]

Brilliant puzzle.

Some tricky clues and a tricky finish too.

Well done to Paddock.

[Encota]

I really enjoyed this one - thanks Paddock! Some challenging and, in places, very tough clues. I made a silly error which tripled the time I took to solve the overall puzzle (and I felt a right twit when I spotted it) but all seemed to turn out right in the end.

[Scorpius]

I also found the NE and SW corners harder, particularly the SW. I was so stuck in the SW after filling all the rest that I did something I haven't done in a long time - I hit the 'autofill' button in Sympathy just to see what it might come up with, and went through some of the possibilities to see if they were supported by the clues.

I'm inclined to agree with Hagen about the jumbling of the replacements, though preamble info did help with some. I found three locations easily but struggled with the last two, especially as I was missing an extra letter for one of them because the wordplay of one clue completely defeated me. In the end I saw a location for the other letters so managed to deduce the missing letter.

I must say that I did admire many of the clues, though there are still four that I don't fully understand.

One more task remains - the highlighting. Nothing's jumped out at me yet.

[HappyUncle]

While tending to agree with those who were unhappy about the jumbles, I think that showing them en clair would have reduced the satisfaction of working them out and fitting them in. There is a logical pathway that begins with identifying the letter that isn't among the extras and then spotting the red herrings. I don't think I'm giving anything away to those who are still toiling.

The true brilliance of this debut (confirmed by the Crossword Database) is in the creation of clues worthy of Sabre, every single one having something thematic in it, with a rare combination of wit (40ac, 4dn) and audacity (24/26ac).

I didn't begrudge a minute of the time I spent on it. Surely a contender for POTY?

[s_pugh]

I must have completed a different puzzle I think. POTY? Drove me potty more like. Thanks Paddock, but that made very hard work.

[upsetter]

Steady on Happy Uncle.
"making new crossing words" in the preamble suggested that ALL the crossing words would change.
Is there not another convention to the effect "all entries in the final grid are real words", which more accurately describes this puzzle?
Very good clues, some almost impenetrable.
We don't think that it would have been improved by the insertions being given in clue order - last week people were saying that the absence of jumbling made it too easy.
This was emphatically not a grid-stare - it was a sequential process of deduction derived from reading the preamble.

[olichant]

I thought this was a very good puzzle indeed. Some really tough clues - am still struggling to parse a few - but always fair, and impressively concise and devious. Thanks, Paddock.

[icynorth]

Finally there. I appreciate the setter’s skill in keeping the theme running in the clues, but it’s not really my cup of tea. Too much ‘hull of this’ and ‘stern of that’ for my liking. I’d have preferred normal clues, but an impressive challenge, thanks Paddock!