Listener Crossword 4030: Requisite Knowledge by Elfman

[Speravi]

Greetings to all.

I was fortunate in having some free time this evening to enjoy this excellent offering from Elfman. Some excellent &lit clues here, I thought.

When I recognised the verse, I had to smile - I first met it in that "educational comic", if that's not an oxymoron, Look and Learn some 45 years ago.

[AHearer]

Yes, Speravi, I enjoyed it too, but I didn't think it was easy. For my taste, rather too many of the omitted letters required recogntion of the theme to confirm them, and I thought four forenames rather too many for one puzzle. I agree about the &lit clues -- one of which, had I solved it sooner, would have led me much more rapidly to the theme.

[Silentether]

I am very jealous! Do you both subscribe to Times online? Sitting here counting down the hours until morning! Normal 23 year olds are out having fun now!

[AHearer]

Sorry, Silentether. Yes, I do have a Times Online subscription. I took it out because I have a one-hour commute and I like to have the Listener in front of me on the Friday evening trip to kick off the weekend. And who are these 23 year olds of whom you speak?

[Silentether]

My peers! I'm sure a few of them are waiting too but I've not met them.
Thank you, AHearer.

[Speravi]

Well, Silentether, I'm jealous of you! I didn't get into the Listener until I was in my thirties. Until then I was wasting my time on wine, women, song, and chess (not necessarily in that order). The subscription is worth it to me - if I don't complete the Listener over the weekend in which it's published, life takes over and I miss out.

[toalisi]

I enjoy reading the comments on the weekly thread and have been considering attempting the Holy Grail of crosswords.

I usually complete, without too much difficulty, other bar gridded crosswords - EV , Inquisitor etc and would like to test myself.

Could anyone please suggest one of the easier Listener puzzles set this year that I could use as a starting point?
The number and date of the crossword recommended would be appreciated as I have a friend who subscribes to the Times and could get me a copy.

Thanks.

[robinruth]

Toalisi, try this weeks - we have only dared to attempt the holy of holies for about the last three months (with some fearsome struggles that the contributors to this thread have helped me through) but this one is really within reach.

[toalisi]

Thanks robinruth for the encouragement and I'll have a go at this weeks.

It is a pity that more detailed discussion is frowned upon by some Listener diehards.

[turnerjmw]

I enjoyed this. Finding the theme certainly speeded up the finish considerably, but I liked the twist of having to remove every occurence of a letter from an answer, rather than just one.

Many thanks, Elfman

[bobbycollins]

Welcome, toalisi

Please don't think me po-faced, but regular contributors here wouldn't welcome more detailed discussion. The unofficial protocol is gentle hints only.

[AHearer]

As a relative novice at Listener crosswords, and an even more recent discoverer of this site, I have to agree with what bobbycollins says. There's not much satisfaction in simply posting a request for a solution to 10d, whereas a few hints, sometimes almost as cryptic as the original clue, still leave room for the satisfaction from the 'aha' moment that is presumably what most of us are after.

[Sarrie]

I've finished but am alittle unhappy about the symmetry . Does anyone else share my concerns?

[robinruth]

I imagine your concern is with the 'direction' of some of the 'names in the continuation of the verse'. (Which, by implication, required the use of two of the 'forenames' mentioned at the start of the thread to produce the symmetry - though of course, it is symmetry on only one axis.) Perhaps a little contrived - but it did completely fulfil the preamble. As usual, I was impressed by the skill of the compilation.

[emcee]

After a long hard slog on Duck's puzzle (didn't look at it until last Thursday and wish I'd done so much earlier) it's nice to have a reasonably gentle crossword. I haven't completed it yet as I was still finishing off "Office Block" last night but the bottom half of the grid is pretty much complete. From the comments so far I can look forward to an enjoyable endgame.

[perseverer]

On the subject of the forenames, are they given in Chambers 2008? I have an earlier edition which doesn't give 2of them.

[Flocko]

No they are not. One of them is a fairly well-known literary reference.

...Flocko

[cluelessJoe]

Well I kind of staggered to the finish on this one .. took me a bit longer than I at first expected. I think it was late recognition of the verse - once I had that it gave me a hefty nudge in the right direction.

toalisi - I would not personally recommend this one .. if you want a fairly gentle intro from this year's batch, I would suggest Baker's Dozen by Adam (3rd January I think) which was quite nicely straightforward.

[cluelessJoe]

sorry toalisi you asked for a number too .. it was 4015

[midazolam]

A nice puzzle and tricky to construct. I should have seen what to highlight earlier on, but waited until I had finished it apart from one of the aforementioned names before seeing the light.

i thought 20 across was an excellent clue.

agree with cluelessjoe listener 4015 was the easiest of the year so far

[jamesah]

One of the easier puzzles in my opinion although I was stuck on quite a few answers until I found the quotation. Does the shape of the highlighted area have any significance?