Listener 4492 Mad Tom's Traps

[lyrabelacqua]

Took a while to pursue this, and I wasn't sure of it until the end, but I have now caught all the elusive quarries.

[starwalker]

Quite a feat of construction. The final quarry took far longer to locate than it should have, but everything else was fairly straightforward. Loved 22a, after banging my head several times. Thanks Hedge-sparrow.

[Hagen]

This was an excellent implementation of an interesting theme. I made rather heavy weather of the final stages, not least because I can't count properly (although I had all the clashes, I somehow thought I was still missing one). It took me a while to find the quarries but it was very satisfying to do so, especially as they were all verifiable in the primary reference.

Nice clues with realistic surface readings. The clues are usually a means to an end in this sort of puzzle but it's satisfying when the setter takes trouble to make them read well as English sentences. (A few too many Scottishisms for my taste, though!)

Great stuff. Thanks, Prunella!

[Alekhine]

22A is up there with the best clues this year.

I enjoyed 19A too.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Our village is paperless today. Would anyone be able to email me the puzzle? [email protected]

[sunny-dave]

No probs, pushmi - give me a few minutes

Dave

[sunny-dave]

On its way now.

SD

[Scorpius]

An excellent puzzle with a very densely packed grid, over 42% of which was thematic. As noted by others, the clues were excellent, the wordplay to some of which still eludes me (including 22a). I've noticed before that Hedge-sparrow is a setter that does take pains to write good clues.

I see that those of us who claimed that the preamble to Listener 4489 did not say what it meant and did not mean what it said have been vindicated.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Huge thanks to both of you who sent me the grid a moment ago, I'm now a happy snowy bunny!

[s_pugh]

What a stunning construction! A beautiful puzzle and some great (and tricky) clues. One of my favourite Listeners in a long while. Many thanks Hedge Sparrow.

[Liathach]

First rate puzzle, managing to make two substitutions work. In the final one, all but one were in unches; I suppose the setter tried to avoid this, but found it impossible. What a feast of excellent offerings we have this year already!

[upsetter]

Tough clues with a lovely denouement.

Thanks Hedge-sparrow.

[IainGrace]

Excellent challenge. Expanding/dredging up our knowledge of the subject matter - and indeed vindicated regarding the ambiguity/lacuna in the rubric for 4489.

[icynorth]

This got better and better as the solving progressed, and the endgame was a wonderful surprise. Thanks Hedge-sparrow. This was my favourite so far this year.

Did anyone else spot an error in the preamble? It shouldn’t affect my entry, fortunately. And if 21 and 49 are phrases, why is only 21 indicated as a multiple-word answer?

[Scorpius]

I can't say I noticed any errors in the preamble, icynorth. I was initially puzzled by something but saw what was meant in the end. The last sentence of the preamble refers to both the initial grid and the final grid

[sunny-dave]

Excellent - as others have said, it just got better and better as I unpicked the puzzle.

The unravelling wouldn't have taken half as long if I hadn't been convinced that I had found a clash which didn't fit the preamble - or if I could count properly.

Thanks Hedge-sparrow - a worthy opponent for a snowed-in Saturday.

[icynorth]

Clearly I’ve fallen into one of Mad Tom’s traps, that Sunny Dave managed to escape from. More work required...

[olichant]

Beautiful puzzle. Some tough clues, too, belied by a relatively tough start. Such a nice idea, so well executed.

[icynorth]

I’ve freed myself from that particular trap now. I was thrown by the error in the preamble. As I suspected, it made no difference to the final grid, so I suspect it wasn’t deliberate.

[olichant]

I see no error in the preamble.