Crosswords1 min ago
Listener 4072: The Isolated Word by Ten-Four
66 Answers
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
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.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!
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!
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/
http://cfaj.freeshell.org/wordfinder/
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.