Listener 4072: The Isolated Word by Ten-Four

[midazolam]

I am glad there was no dilemmas here (which was the case for me in "A New Year Message" 2008). As with all of the year's listeners so far, the grid was fairly easy easy to fill, but the construction again is very impressive, with no ambiguity (in fact it confirms a couple of answers). 30 down, the last to solve, I liked. Plenty of early anagrams to get newbies interested. Thanks Ten-Four

[LewapYellow]

Okay, grid complete except unchecked letter in 29A, and 23 down (I know what I want the answer to be, but can't make the wordplay work...!)
As for the anagram, that's also solved (I spotted what it related to before answering any clues!) - but no idea what the isolated word is (I have some of the letters used in it - by applying the instruction - but otherwise completely ignorant.
Any pushing in the right direction would be very welcome!

[silversolver]

LewapYellow - a close scrutiny of Chambers should confirm the definition in 23d and then the wordplay is fairly obvious. The unchecked letter in 29A and the isolated word can be found by applying the instruction and by some careful counting!

[x_word_fan]

Thanks silversolver - re. 33a sorted now - stupidly I had put in the wrong letter last night because I can't add up to 18 correctly!

[Mysterons]

As LewapYellow alluded to, this was another puzzle to which applying the first rule of Listener crosswords paid dividends, and for the solving of which the Wordfinder site came in very handy once more (particularly the anagram minus facility for the final step):

http://cfaj.freeshell.org/wordfinder/

[Philoctetes]

Very clever, but I spent a bit of time extra trying to find a final word that used a letter to which I had applied the hint more often than I should have. Sorry to be vague, but I do think the hint could be taken that way.

[jacinth]

Good advice Mysterons: that's the first (or second) thing I do with any Listener and it worked well for me as I was missing two letters of the eight. Very nicely put together, no ambiguities, thanks Ten-Four!

[milford15]

i filled the grid very quickly and got 7 of the 8 letters. cluelessjoe's tip got me the 8 letter word, and i think i can guess 29A to fit in with this, but still no clue on the Isolated Word. Will keep looking - perhaps a night's sleep will help as it helped silversolver! i am intrigued by Zabadak's comment re needing to learn to count - i presume that is a clue.... back to drawing board!

[catstail]

Am enjoying this, and have only around six clues left. Unfortunately all my candidates for answers clash with each other!
Am assuming the definition is the first part of the clue in 33a. If anyone could give me a gentle hint for 25ac I might be able to sort this tangle out. Thanks.

[x_word_fan]

milford 15 suggest you use Google dictionary with your 8 letter word

[Mysterons]

catstail - 25 across's definition is its first word

[catstail]

Thanks Mysterons. Had already looked at my Chambers Xword dict under that. I had another look, and there it was staring me in the face - and it should have been such an easy clue.

[milford15]

Sorry, not sure what the the first rule of Listener crosswords is? Please enlighten. Any other rules gratefully received too!

[LewapYellow]

Milford 15 - apply the eight letter anagram to the clues, imagining them to be an example of your eight letter anagram.
Oh, the first rule of listener is to read through all the clues first - you might just spot a theme...

[s436]

All done now, thanks everybody! Didn't expect quite so much work at the end, but it all adds up. And now I see why so many plural entries seemed to crop up.

[Archie1962]

You don't really need to count. It's an 11 letter word made up of 7 particular letters, some more than once. A website like Word Matcher will cut you down to three possibilities, of which only one is really credible. And if you've got the checked letters of 29A it shouldn't take long to make the connection.

[Archie1962]

Thanks for making me take another look at 23D though. I would have got that wrong.

[foxy33]

Completed grid and found the word. I think I'm OK with 23D although can't see the wordplay for 31A and 32D. Would welcome a nudge.

[Clamzy]

I don't see the problem people have been having with 23dn, the wordplay is so obvious even if the definition is a bit obscure.
31 across has the last word as definition and it's a type found on the shore.
32dn is a poet with last letter (energy) removed and replaced by another (is). You should be able to get it from the from the checking letters, although again the definition is a bit obscure.
Hope this helps.

[Mysterons]

The 'is' in 32d is part of the definition, the last letter of the answer being supplied by the 's' in 'poet's'.

[catstail]

I have finished the grid except for 28dn. I have 5 out of six letters but Chambers has no word which fits. I think either 33ac or 38 ac may be wrong. Any gentle hints as to how I can tease out this seemingly insolubLE messy PIE would be very welcome. Have probably spent as much time on this clue as all the others put together! Thanks.