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Listener Crossword 4035

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midazolam | 07:29 Sat 23rd May 2009 | Crosswords
28 Answers
Morning! (or should I say that in French?)

This weeks listener is "Half a Dozen" by Nibor

Tough one this week to fill the grid because the inserted letters are randomly placed. Liked it because it was a challenge and with a different slant to put the missing letters into the grid, but thematically not exciting (having got the theme early on).
Nothing to find / highlight and jumbling up the 6 thematic words i presume was only done to make it harder for the solver.
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Agreed, midazolam. It's perhaps worth pointing out that in many places the two-word unclued entry is written as one word.
I'm afraid we are finding it fairly impenetrable and I was wondering how to ask whether we should be finding complete, Chambers words when we insert those letters into the words of the grid entry. The preamble doesn't say so - am I supposed, therefore, to assume that complete words plus an unrelated extra letter can go in?
Yes midazolam, once the theme has been uncovered it just becomes a bit of a slog to fill the grid correctly. Still, at least I have learned something thanks to Wikipedia.

robinruth - the preamble tells you all that you need to know.
I found this pretty tough, to be honest. I was probably being a bit thick this week, but I had to cold solve well over half the clues before I could enter more than a few, as most crossing letters could have three possibilities. I was also slow to pick up on the theme. Like midazolam, I felt the jumbling was only done to add another layer of complexity. I'm afraid, robinruth, that the inserted letters do not make extra words, so it's all a bit of a slog.
Hello everyone. I started this in the alehouse last night and cold solved quite a few. I agree with the above that it seems as though it's going to be a slog to the bitter end. Never mind, we've been spoilt with some great puzzles in the last couple of months.
Thanks, both. Yes - we're slogging! I suppose it was too much to expect wonderful words to appear! Cheers, anyway.
Just finished, once I'd worked out the theme the rest of the grid did indeed become a slog. (I was a bit slow getting the theme, I wish I'd got 1 across a lot sooner.)

I also spent an awful long time with 35a picking the right alternative answer...thought I was going to have to take a 50/50 guess.

IntoTheBlue
35 ac seems to depend on an indirect anagrammatic subtraction for the answer to be understood - which seems somewhat unfair. The random placing of letters in clues made solving more laborious and less satisfying to complete than usual.
It was pretty tough, but became a lot easier when the theme became clear. Oddly timed.
I cannot see any thematic justification for the jumbles, which is a weakness in my view. The grid would have been rather more satisfying without.
Timing probably reflects numbers due next week. Time to dig out calculators.
We have the theme and the six unclued answers. Sorting out their jumbles is actually helping us to find some of our missing solutions - but this really is hard work! Yes, I too wish we had found 1ac sooner. We were misled by what still seems to be an extraneous word in the clue - I imagine it is there for the surface reading.
Well, I really enjoyed that. The jumbles added some spice to completing the thing.

Agree with robinruth that the unclued lights (albeit jumbled) helped a lot with finishing the grid.

My good mate IntoThe Blue has the advantage over me at 35a since I still don't see the wordplay, but am sure of the correct alternative - that sounds daft, I know.

IntoTheBlue is in the North East today at the football - sorry mate, but I'm screaming for Sunderland.

My final solution was 3d and took nearly an hour to work out - I was totally stuck in the NW corner before seeing it.

Thanks to Nibor for a real challenge. I have a rest next week with the sums puzzle in the offing.
I have finished the puzzle, but my answer at 38A is not in Chambers !
Have I got it wrong.
Any gentle hint would be appreciated
Cheers
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yes 38 across is definitely in Chambers fancydan

i finished the bottom right hand corner last, only because i had 42 across wrong for some time - fitting the wordplay perfectly


Thanks midazolam,
I had the first letter wrong.
All done now, but not a wow puzzle.
bobbycollins, as nigel2 suggested, you have to remove a jumbled version of one word to get to the answer. The anagram indicator might not be the most obvious one
Yes, pretty hard going this one, as has been mentioned. I got the theme early like others and then spent a long time solving the remaining clues, which I would like to say were of a very high standard. I had an incorrect but justifiable answer at 5d for far too long, which didn't help of course. Also took awhile confirming the wordplay in a few, so a challenge all round. See you next time . . .oh, numbers again, see you in two weeks then.
Thanks, turnerjmw

Got it now - seems rather oblique to me - not sure if it is entirely fair but am open to correction.

bobbycollins
Midazolam - was that an intentional red herring in your original posting?!! I had three letters in for 30ac which fitted with the French word you referred to, so made a guess and screwed up my SE corner for quite a while. Silly me...

Still unconvinced by the wordplay to 2dn. Presume the entry is the last four letters of a longer word that is in turn a reference to an archaicism in the clue. One of several clues where I felt I was trying to squeeze the wordplay into the answer.

Spent a while trying to turn the title into a thematic name but gave up on that. Is there any other significance to it beyond alerting solvers to the number of unclued entries I wonder?
Cruncher - I just saw the answer to 2 down as splitting 1 letter and 3, if you see what I mean.

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