Listener 4083: Not as Mad as It Sounds? by Bandmaster

[Zabadak]

At first the high proportion of short words is a bit daunting - but for the most part the clues are fair, even if in one instance a little vulgarity (in my and Chambers' opinion) creeps in. A good enjoyable solve with a pleasing conclusion which probably excuses (and made necessary) all those short clues. I liked the coinage too. Thanks and appreciation to Bandmaster.

[daagg]

Not "runner" then :-)

[AndrewG-S]

I too was thinking run - there is a running competiton and on the way you can apparantly take in the three peaks if you are so minded. The record for the run is 9 days, which at just over 100 miles a day is pretty astonishing

[Jogler]

Unfortunately our back-up team was sadly lacking!

[silversolver]

Found this one a bit of a struggle with some difficult clues but got there eventually and enjoyed the endgame. Thanks, Bandmaster, for a tough workout.

[IainGrace]

Are we cprrect in reading 25 across as in effect a double wordplay?

[dr b]

Yes, the clue can be parsed as wordplay/definition/wordplay.

[IainGrace]

Thanks for that. New to this email thread but not to the crossword. Agree that the last few have been elegantly constructed and satisfying to solve. Today's is much easier, not least because the grid is straightforward.

[IainGrace]

At 48 across, we think we know the definition and the answer and understand the wordplay but this depends on a synonymy between "cake" and another word which we can't quite get to in Chambers. Did anyone else have this problem? We have now submitted our solution so maybe I shouldn't be asking this.......

[perseverer]

IainGrace - have just seen your post, and since we are now past the closing date for submissions anyway, Chambers gives to cake as a meaning for to pan as a verb.

[IainGrace]

Thanks, Perseverer. Don't know how we missed it. Must have been crossworded out at that point.