Listener crossword 4009

[cluelessJoe]

Will this one get us going round in circles I woneder?

.. Three rings by Franc

[Clamzy]

Thanks for the link CluelessJoe - a bit of a circus maybe?

[mad max]

Many thanks for link

[kayakamina]

Thanks for the link Joe.

[AHearer]

Many thanks for the link.

Nice construction, as usual with the radial form, but rather obscure (to me. at least) individuals in the initial letters of the missing words. Most of the clues are OK, but there is still one neighbouring pair I'm not totally happy with.

[cluelessJoe]

Whoops, sorry about the typo in my posting .. no wonder I manage to screw up the odd entry with transcription errors.

I agree about the obscure names, and I was not totally comfortable with my answer to the wordplay in 31.
Also did not like "monarch" ... if I'm reading that as "M on Arch", I thought the editors were dead against that kind of clue construction.

[Rapparee]

Belated thanks for the link, cJ!

I read the monarch clue as a Container & Contents clue, justified by the question mark.

If you read 31 as the lead letter being 'reduced' to the previous letter in the alphabet then it makes sense.

[bobbycollins]

That was hard work.

"Rich Monarch" just about worked for me, but I had the definition before seeing the wordplay.

Don't know where I've gone wrong but, not that it matters, I only have seven, mainly very obscure, names - one of whom is an ex Prime Minister, hidden talents or what?

[Scorpius]

Not an ex-PM, bobbycollins. His father.
Very surprised the clue to 7 was allowed, considering there is no information about answer lengths in the second ring and they are out of sequence.

[cluelessJoe]

Thanks Rapparee - always nice to know where I got my answers from .. I was reading the last 4 letters of the answer as the reduced content bit! As for the other, I get it now .. I was thinking of the key stone in an arch which is why I got well knotted

[Walterloo]

Bobbycollins, I found only seven names, too. I found the extra words and the building of names the hardest part in this. Unless I'm missing something obvious does one of them count as both an individual and a family sharing the same name? They're nearly all too obscure to know for certain.

[bobbycollins]

Thanks, Walterloo

My mental database must be in need of a re-size, since I had completely forgotten that nugget of information. What a great pa to have had!

I have been mentally conjuring an image of of my own late dad attempting the feats of said pa. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight - he weighed in at over 17 stones!

[bobbycollins]

Sorry, it was Scorpius who reminded me.

Glad that somebody else has only seven names, Walterloo. Can anybody explain without giving too much away?

[AHearer]

I'm glad I'm not the only one to have had problems with the names. In the end I decided that life was too short to trawl the web to verify them all, and that as the rest of the puzzle seemed to hang together I'd post it and forget it until the solution is published. I can only assume there's a history of the ****** that would make it all clear, but this puzzle seemed to require a level of specialised knowledge that other name-based themes (the Henrys, for example) did not.

[JackDeCrow]

Searching for the names one at a time with the theme confirmed all except the ex-PMs dad, so thanks to Scorpius for putting us out of that misery!
But definitely only seven names - two of which end in "s" and are presumably the families.
Wasted a fair bit of time at the beginning by trying to force the wrong name into the centre ring as well !

[cluelessJoe]

Seven names here too .. all I can suggest is that the second name can be shortened by removing the last 2 letters to give an eighth name which can also be associated with the general theme - so that particular sequence of letters effectively does double duty.

[cluelessJoe]

PS Mad Max .. well done, I see you won the first race at Ascot on Friday (rubbish odds though!)

[midazolam]

good evening all and thanks for the link cluelessJoe

only started this tonight and thought i would just mention something before i forget it: should the clue to 33 include 57.32 as a more precise conversion?

be back later (hopefully)

[mad max]

cluelessJoe, wish I was favourite to finish this crossword, more like a rank outsider.

[midazolam]

well you are all "top" of the bill, but then the second ring gave the game away.

is this the first listener where the etymology is the definition (clue 27)? I hope this does not become commonplace

at last - a circular crossword that actually fits the theme

[cluelessJoe]

Hi Midazolam - depends where you look in Chambers - in the conversion chart at the back, they suggest a factor of 2.2046, in the main dictionary entry for kilo they give 2.205 - this latter gives the 57.33.
Good point on the etymology, though I think we had a few of those in 'the French can' the other week didn't we? I also hope it doesn't become a habit.