Listener 4007

[cruciverbali]

This week's challenge isSongspiel by Dysart.

However, it looks like the Halloween Gremlins might have struck again, so watch this space !

[kayakamina]

Thanks for the link. I''ll be watching!

[cruciverbali]

The grid is there now, so fingers crossed the Gremlins stay away this week !

[mad max]

Many thanks for link much appreciated.

[cluelessJoe]

Thanks C ... and thanks for the warning - or I'd have assumed the fault was down to my having to use a tediously slow dialup line (3 weeks now without broadband, cheers BT) . Got here early yesterday evening, so had to draw half the grid freehand and just hope it was symmetrical - confirmed on picking up the paper this morning.

[Rapparee]

Belated thanks for the link, Cruciverbalist.

Will the Times club ever pull its socks up? Even the TLS and Club Monthly crosswords didn't appear till lunchtime yesterday....

[cluelessJoe]

Made it eventually, but did not enjoy those three letter answers with unchecked letters!

[bobbycollins]

Agreed, cluelessJoe

The subject is one of my passions, and I would have been miffed not to finish. Astonishingly, I guessed at the piece after getting the first four letters. It took me a full 24 hours after completing the rest to finally work out 39d.

Thoroughly enjoyed another puzzle of middling difficulty. Thanks, Dysart.

[starwalker]

Agreed bobbycollins - 39d was a beast. I thought that the puzzle itself, other than that, was a dream.

[cluelessJoe]

Your post, word for word, could have been penned by me bobbycollins. Early spot of the theme concerning a massive favourite and much of a day thrashing around 39d.
Strangely, I'm most of the way through compiling a crossword on a (different) song by the same person ... maybe I should shelve it for a while!

[bobbycollins]

You mustn't do that, cluelessJoe. Can't get too much of a good thing.

The Crossword Centre post mortem should be fun - opinions are very much divided on the worth of the subject. The negatives are ignorant of the true value of the wider opus....but I would say that wouldn't I?

I could shove in a relevant quote from the piece, but I don't want to give the game away.

[spiderFreak]

Yes, likewise, it took me an age to finish off the last few clues with 39d coming up in last place. An enjoyable challenge, but a sigh of relief came when I finally got it dusted off.

[midazolam]

Good evening all. After a few weeks of absence, I see that I have been mentioned in despatches, although one particular interferer decided to be derisive without provocation.

I have enjoyed the recent listener instalments, 4005 (took some time to get the symmetrical movement of thematic answers still making real words, but a relief when the penny dropped), 4006 (the Halloween special that seemed to be straight forward enough), which leads me on to this weeks challenge....

....i recall Dysart's earlier offering this year. somehow he/she produces some dastardly cluing. Managed to complete the grid, work out the meaning of the 13/4 alterations and the 5 (+1 extra) groups with their grid representations.

However can someone settle my mind, 10 of the 13 are straightforward. The remaining 3 (around the top left part of the grid) can be altered using more than one substitution and as these are non-clashing I cant see the reasoning.

well done Dysart

p.s. 32 down was the last entry that I got.

[bobbycollins]

Good to hear from you, midazolam

The one that bothered me was 5d, I decided that the only logical choice was a change to an unchecked letter to produce the only other possible valid word. It fits with the preamble.

Hope that this helps.

[midazolam]

unfortunately 5 down is not part of the three i mentioned above - agree with your comment though bobbycollins

[midazolam]

oh unless the word "answers" in the preamble means "cells" as well as "individual full grid entries". In that case these 3 can be ignored

the other thing that I wondered was the title - songspiel rather than singspiel?

[Rapparee]

Hi Midazolam.

You need to keep trying all the possibilities in the top left-hand corner until only one set of possibilities will do, accompanied by a very nice penny-drop.

[midazolam]

am i thick or what - thanks rapparee

[cluelessJoe]

Good grief - Midazolam still struggling on a Tuesday! What is our world coming to? (Welcome back M!)
The key to your particular struggle was the piece in the preamble about ambiguities being 'nominally' resolved ... glad you got there in the end!

[mad max]

Just couldn't get into this one, very difficult cluing (for me) also got nowhere with EV this week.

[bobbycollins]

How pleasant are the exchanges on this board recently? I like civilised.

Anybody got a link to EV? Mine has gone AWOL following the revamp of the Telegraph site.