listener crossword 4064

[starwalker]

This week's offering is Metrical Variations by Hedge-sparrow.

A typical offering such as we have come to expect from this setter. Some gentle clue and a nice theme. Sadly the final step took me longer than it should. (I'm calling it old age).

[Cruncher]

foxy33 - my second post was a little hint

[foxy33]

Yes I saw that. I already had the answer - but can't see all of the wordplay.

[robinruth]

Foxy33 Look up the first four letters of your solution in Chambers!

[foxy33]

Thanks Robinruth. I've looked up all kinds of things but I missed that!

[Wideernie]

I've been doing the Times daily for about 6 months and thought I'd have a go at the Listener. Well, after 12 hours solid, eyestrain and a battered Chambers, I finally completed it!! It took me an hour to find the theme, even after reading a wikipedia page with the same title and a completed grid. I am, as they say, over the moon.
Looking forward to the Christmas puzzle. I may even finish by Easter.

[midazolam]

Well done Wideernie. Soon you will be hooked, not only from the sheer determination that you want to finish it but also to experience the clever PDMs (penny dropping moments) that sometimes give you that doh! feeling.

[hooverman]

Midazolam - I chuckled re your PDM's - as another Listener newboy I can completely agree with the sense of being sucked in - one query (this wont become a habit) - cant get the wordplay of 12 ac. - I dont like filling the grid without being totally happy with the clue - any hints?

[perseverer]

hooverman - look up the first four letters of the answer, then put the extra letter before the fifth.

[Cruncher]

Aaah Wideernie and Hooverman... There will be a time in years hence when will you hunt out this post, the intervening years a littered trail of discarded redundant editions of Chambers' dictionaries, crossword solvers, Google searches, hopeful queries posted on AnswerBank, weekend social events declined or forgotten in the pursuit of the solution, and reflect ruefully on what you were unwittingly get yourself into. I started doing the LIstener in the early 90s, attracted by the then prizewinning lure of watches and champagne and have been doing it ever since. Well not quite. I managed to quit the habit for a couple of years in the early noughties, started reading novels, seeing friends, attending to long-forgotten issues of personal hygiene, discovered that I had two kids whose existence had been virtually obscured by the towering piles of reference books. But then another Listener came along, I was cool about it, I could just do the one. No problem. I was clean. Pick it up and put it down again. But no. The hydra wrapped its tentacles around me again and, this time, has not let me go. Of course I could quit again next Saturday, except I might two weeks away from an all-correct year and, if not, there is the tantalising promise of the start of a new unblemished record just around the corner.....

Addictive? Naaah, not a bit

[Jogler]

Nice one, Cruncher. Let this be a warning to us all.....

[hooverman]

Thankyou perseverer - how much of a numpty do I feel now! - looked all around it.

Cruncher - is there no hope?

[tenflags]

Indeed cruncher thank you for that insight.

I am also a newboy (only my 5th completed listener out of 7 attempts) even though I spent close to 6 hours on this it is comforting to know that you guys can also waste hours struggling over puzzles ( the tougher ones for you at least ). Given the time involved for me I have decided to only tackle it now and then lest I fall into the situation you describe. The catch 22 is that to improve one needs to do them of course but I shall have to try and find a balance.

So whilst you guys might savour the 'brutes' I look forward to the more accessible ones.

Anyway I remain in awe at how quickly you folks tackle these 'easier' ones as well as complete the toughies.

[daagg]

Who has won the largest number of prize Chambers dictionaries?

[jacinth]

Well done Wideernie! Intrigued by the media coverage for number 4000 in September 2008, I started chipping away at them. My first finish was 4004, a good example of what a Listener is all about. I don't try every one - Phi's 50th birthday offering was a recent one I didn't even start. I do find them most enjoyable and my brain is certainly much the better for it. I hope you'll find them as satisfying as I do.
This week's was very pleasant and relaxing after the very tough clueing of 4063, and probably my quickest solve of the year (about two hours). I think my worst has been about a week!

[Cruncher]

daagg - no dictionaries, but one rather nice Parker pen, a book of Morse crosswords, a Cambridge encyclopedia, the Cambridge encyclopedia of Language and the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Literature. I reckon I'm marginally ahead on the cost of postage, but only marginally.

Aah but the kudos, the social levee, the admiration of colleagues (hmmm, sure there must be one), and the bewilderment, dismay and barracking from my family - these things are beyond value