Listener 4005

[Rapparee]

Good afternoon, folks. The link for this one:

Wild Goose Chase by Tea Leaves

[gribble]

And thanks from me Scorpius, just didnt see it until I listed them as suggested.

[x_word_fan]

Got the phrase - got flight path for the group of 10 so know what to do BUT - NOT GOT 2 of them "abyss" clue also 6 down has me lost - TO-IC tonic ? WHY?and no idea on the associated member of the 10 group for 6 down. What a birdbrain!

[Clamzy]

X-word fan
If you search under hollow you will find one of the group of ten to solve your abyss problem.
You are correct with 6 down. What do you get if you "turn-up" NOT and add (I)n (C)uba to the end?

[bobbycollins]

Got there in the end.

Should have seen the flight path much sooner.

Wot, no midazolam?

[Cruncher]

Finished this but think I must be missing something. Can't see a connection between the first flight path and the other nine - guess there must be an overall pattern but it hasn't hit me yet. And also can't find any significance behind the choice of the other four extra groups - perhaps they are just WGCs...

[Clamzy]

Cruncher - I think that the connection is one that has been used several times this year (I am thinking of the Radix Playfair and also the 4000 monster) where symmetry was the clincher.
I too couldn't see any significance to the other groups.

[Cruncher]

Thanks Clamzy. To be honest I'd never noticed the symmetry in the 4000!

[x_word_fan]

All sorted now thanks for the help. Start again tomorrow!

[cluelessJoe]

Re Wot no Midazolam ...
Maybe he suffered the same fate as me - BT stuffing up his broadband link (still out) and phone line (just back) for two weeks.
Just glad that the last 3 Listeners have been crackable (for me anyway) without need for a slight leg-up.

[chrislear]

I couldn't do this puzzle, and gave up.

I've criticised users of the answerbank in the past for providing a cable-car up the mountain that's all too easy for tired climbers to jump onto. So I thought it would be interesting, now that my climb is over, to see what help might have been available had I come here.

And I'm gratified, weirdly, to find that the solution is not here on a plate. Indeed, the recent Answerbank threads on Listener puzzles seem to be much more restrained than when I last looked (which was a while ago).

Not sure why I'm saying this except to admit that, as a keen Listener solver who has been a critic of the way people use this site, my opinions have changed based on new evidence. And, on this puzzle in particular, commenters pass my "is the solution given away to someone who is stuck?" test. [Please note this is only my view, and I know that there's no reason why anyone would want to pass that test just to make me happy.]

[ListenerFan]

I believe that these Listener threads are being heavily moderated nowadays - to the extent that they're pulled completely if they start giving too much away.