Listener

[rabet]

Is there no Listener discussion this week?

[Philoctetes]

Just stunned silence in my case. Where to start?

[Clamzy]

Where to start? You have heard of cold solving - well this looks like deep frozen to me:-) I have two out of seventeen - it looks like a long haul

[AHearer]

Indeed, solving to match the weather. The misprints are fairly easy to spot and confirm, I think, what one might have assumed from the start. Even so, with ten solved and a lot worn off my eraser, I can't make it work.

[emcee]

Eight solved ... all misprints identified ...

... and now my brain hurts.

[midazolam]

similar boat here too. 12 solved but they physically do not fit together forwards or backwards in the grid. i wonder if there is an entry gimmick as well....if i crack the 16 letter one, I am hoping it will make more sense.

[AHearer]

Agreed, midazolam: I'm throwing away my original idea.

[emcee]

Making progress at long last. Mind how you enter the letter "n" !

[midazolam]

like a z on its side!

[emcee]

Quite right midazolam, my error. It's another letter that I'll have to be careful entering in the final version as I usually use serifs!

[midazolam]

i have to be entirely truthful and say that the penny dropped at 8.15 tonight. Once it did then I found all answered could be entered and the rest deduced. Therefore all ramblings beforehand were just ways of trying to gain inspiration. Happy Christmas to everyone and thank you Pilcrow for an absolute stinker. Those of you who wanted a challenge before the year is out, have got an early Christmas present

[emcee]

I thought the way the ordering of the clues came together at the end was very clever. After much initial angst this has been one of my favourite puzzles of the year.

Looking forward to the Boxing Day puzzle.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.

[AHearer]

Getting the 16-letter solution certainly helped!

I have to confess I'd never thought of that particular feature as a serif before, but I suppose it is. At least, as far as sans-serif font designers are concerned it always seems to be in upper case, but not always in lower case.

[Cruncher]

Splendid crossword. Certainly helped to read the preamble carefully- the phrase "completely filled grid" had eluded me at first reading which left me thinking that I was going to be left with lots of gaps.

In the context of the puzzle, and contemporary events, I thought the penultimate clue was especially brilliant.

Happy Xmas all

[Eril]

Great minds think alike! (OK OK - and fools seldom differ). Cold solving for almost all of the clues, despite deducing the hidden definition of X. Just didn't take it far enough. At least three PDMs - including the final one being that penultimate clue/answer which only became clear once I had filled in the complete grid (to save time I had been using a quarter grid - not realising what this obscured). Entirely agree with all the comments above, from first to last!

[bobbycollins]

I only gave this half an hour before conceding that I was totally out of my depth. Pleased to see that it is do-able; if not by me!

Best wishes to all.

[daagg]

I solved 6 before I realised that I could start fitting them in. The rest fell out quickly, although I feel slightly disoriented after finishing! Still some wordplay to sort out, but the excitement is done. Happy Christmas everyone.

[starwalker]

I managed to get the theme of this, or so I thought, on Friday evening before having to put it to one side in favour of my daughter's wedding yesterday. Having finally thawed out body and brain, I realised that there was more to it than I first thought. Some dastardly clues, but on the whole, I think I enjoyed it.

[Ruthrobin]

What a superb construction and what fun after the initial struggle. I am most impressed!

[perseverer]

One week in the middle of last year I decided I was really going to have a go at a Listener crossword. I made the fortunate/ill-fated (pick what you think is the right word - to echo Cruncher from last week's thread) choice of Tour de France, Pilcrow's last Listener before this one. Good job I didn't choose X as my first serious attempt!

Merry Christmas to all.

[kwyjibo]

I'm glad I didnt read this thread before finishing, would have ruined it for me. It had me completely stumped till a moment of inspiration.