Listener 3995: Past Times by MynoT

[midazolam]

This should pass the time (and 2 offerings from MynoT in a week!

here is the link

[eddery]

Many thanks midazolam - though I fear (and hope) that the cycling and rowing finals may prove a significant distraction this weekend!

[mad max]

thanks for link, but at first glance think I might have to pass on this one

[spiderFreak]

O good, I really like MynoT puzzles - midazolam can you point me to the link to the other? Thanks

[midazolam]

here is the other link to MynoT's puzzle in Sunday's Telegraph

[Rapparee]

Oops. I must be psychic.

[midazolam]

??

[midazolam]

unless rapparee you were psychic cos you worked out what the theme was before even entering an answer....that is what i did, and i think i would of found this impossible otherwise

tough offering this week from MynoT

[Rapparee]

....psychic because I used a member of the set in a Listener thread a few weeks ago. All will be revealed as and when necessary.

To Mad Max I say don't give up so soon. Although this looks extremely tough at first sight, if you can work out the theme it should all fall into place. Concentrate on the quadrants in ring 8 which each contain more than one letter and basically hold the key to the theme. The cluing is very fair from the solver's point of view and that was a big help.

[midazolam]

ah yes i remember now - very uncanny rapparee

[mad max]

Rapparee
thanks for encouragement, slowly working through clues, but my brain seems to switch off when I see a preamble like this one.

[Scorpius]

I'm pleased to see no heavy hints as to theme (or even light ones). This is an excellent puzzle, but a number of features make it quite tough. However, one of the greatest pleasures in this and similar puzzles is to get to a point when one has amassed enough data to see something emerge. For me, this puzzle was a bit like starting out on a cycling trip and coming to an increasingly steep hill, where the going gets pretty difficult and there's no end in sight. Then, suddenly, one clears the peak and coasts down the other side.

[jamesah]

I like Scorpius' analogy. I thought this was going to be impossible but the quadrants eventually yielded the theme and the rest followed quickly. An excellent puzzle- I can now forgive MynoT for his last effort- the notorious 'Advice' which provoked much critical comment at the time.

[bobbycollins]

Ignoramus that I am, I didn't even know what a quadrant actually was before attempting this gem.

They obviously hold the key, and once it had been revealed the rest was relatively straightforward. Am in awe of the Saturday solvers.

After this I went to EV and polished it off in no time. Recommended to newcomers to the "advanced" cryptic.

[cluelessJoe]

Wow, just checked in after a real struggle to the finishing line. I have to salute Midazolam and Rapparee for an astounding achievement in closing out so quickly ... though clearly the Gods were with the latter! Yes, psychic or what?

I tend to hate puzzles with a proliferation of jumbles so approached this one with damped enthusiasm - however it had enough redeeming features to make the mud-wrestling worthwhile and was quite enjoyable on balance. Try to stick with it mad max

... and well done MynoT

(numerical coming up next week .. or come to think of it, it's probably the week after?)

[golgonooza]

I too am in awe of those who did this on Saturday. Anyone care to hint at what Raparee said a few weeks ago as I cant remember? Or tell me how I'm supposed to work out what goes in ring 8 when all I have is two answers for each radial which I presume I have to jumble up to fit in the limited squares. I can't actually see how I'm meant to work out what fits in where. I've solved about 90% of the clues though!

[jamesah]

golgonooza, each quadrant contains letters from 6 clues so you should be able to work out what goes in each by elimination. The entry to each quadrant gives you the last letters of the thematic entries. Flash of inspiration then needed.

[Clamzy]

Hints, whether heavy or light can be dodgy things.
The hint given by Rapparee above sent me searching the archives wherein I found a posting from him mentioning LITTLE DORRIT a few weeks ago. This, and the overlapping letters in the NW quadrant, mislead me into several hours of searching for Dickens characters as the theme.
I've completed the puzzle now but didn't find the theme via the quadrants.

[cluelessJoe]

Very impressed that you reached the theme without recourse to the quadrants clamzy.
Golgonooza, I like most others see those quadrants as the best route - particularly if you have already solved 90% of the clues. You should presumably be in a position - by seeking commonality - to identify the letter content of at least two, probably 3 or 4, of the entries for ring 8 ... and maybe by elimination derive from there the content of a few of the ring 7 entries. I worked out the theme from just the first quadrant backed up by one single ring 7 entry - your solving to date should therefore leave you well enough placed to make a similar connection.
Good luck ... you may well find, despite some very fair clueing, that a couple of answers elude you at first - but as you complete the ring entries, the missing radials can be determined in reverse as more and more component letters appear.
Cheers

[golgonooza]

Thanks clueless joe, I'm going to have another sustained attack on this. I think what I can't get around is the fact that the answers to the radials are jumbled to be entered into the grid, so for radial 1 you'd have two words with a certain amount of letters that presumably should be jumbled and entered in, but no checking letters from the rings because the words in the rings could be anywhere. So I can't see a way of working out how to enter in the words on the grid. Have I misread the preamble?

The other thing is ring 8. Say I have 6 letters to go in the first quadrant, 2 from the answers to each radial 1, 2 and 3, do I just have to go through all the possibilities of words from all those letters, or am I missing something and being completely thick?

[Philoctetes]

Golgonooza,
You are right on the money there! Seems intimidating, but once things start to fall into place it does work out, Have faith.