Listener 4112: Girl by Xanthippe

[Zabadak]

Really, really laugh-out-loud funny crossword, worth all the struggle through the barless grid and the decent, twisty set of clues. Goodness knows what form you're supposed to submit it in, but no doubt I'll work something out. Perhaps not the hardest (though it seems to be a late entrant tonight) but easily the most cheerful in ages. Raucous cheers to Xanthippe!

[trux]

Done ! Two last thoughts ...
Re : what to submit - the problem would have been resolved much more neatly (IMHO) if the pre-ramble had read more like "to extract a four-word phrase (16 letters) that must be (re-) inserted below the grid in the box provided" (and the box provided had been of a sufficient size to hold two lines of text) ....
Re : the hints - excellent (once RR had nudged me ! - thanks ! - even if I had already found the phrase by then) .... Time to get lunch ready, methinks

[starwalker]

I have a full grid, a definition and an instruction, and a girl. As yet, I do not have the final step nor do I have anything to laugh about. Is it me, or is this harder than usual for Xanthippe ?

[aldanna]

Oh dear, failure I fear. I settled the grandchildren into bed and myself down with the Listener. I got a reasonable number of clues, but couldn't enter anything into the grid. I feel the lack of symmetry makes it extra difficult to find a way in. So I have not had the amusement so many of you seem to have at all (but I am not yet reduced to raking leaves, there's always another chapter of Charlie and the Clocolate factory to read).

[midazolam]

aldanna. The knowledge that the clues are in order helps a lot with these carte blanche grids. You know exactly which answer is in which row by their lengths. you can therefore enter the 10 letter answers and some of the others if combined equal ten. dont give up

i have weighed it all up and I think there is only one way to submit this.

[bobbycollins]

aldanna, I intimated earlier that the two ten letter across lights and the first nine letter down light gave me a way in. I now have a full grid and all extra words but can't summon up the enthusiasm to go further at the moment. I'll leave it until work tomorrow where life is less hectic.

I too was scheduled to be on leaf gathering fatigues today, but Thursday's North Westerly blew them all away. Presumably some poor soul at the end of our cul-de-sac has got the lot.

[flocker]

Thanks Contendo, but, for examnple, the two clues after the second ten letter clue are of 4 and 8 letters respectively - more than 10 - how are they to be entered?

[perseverer]

flocker - it may be stating the obvious, but not on the same line. It does all work out as midazolam says.

[contendo]

Flocker, I think you meant bobbycollins rather than me, but my advice would be to concentrate initially on the top left quadrant which goes pretty much as you would expect. I'm still tussling with the final stage. I can see what I presume is the four-word phrase, which I seem to have seen before somewhere, but no amount of origami will bring it together.

[flocker]

the top quadrant is, as you say, fairly obvious - it's the bottom half, below the two 10 letter clues, that causing difficulty coupled with the fact that the second half of the down clues include some of the most impenetrable wordplay I've ever encountered in a crossword anywhere.... rapidly approaching my WPBM (wastepaper basket moment) - the opposite of a PDM

[JackDeCrow]

Finally got there this afternoon after realising that I had mixed up some of the words of the instruction and the definition. Clever and amusing - but never did spot any of the hints!

[dead-eye]

perseverer-not so obvious.clearly there are too many across answers for the grid. but they could be in any direction.

[Zabadak]

Dead-eye. No there ain't and no they can't.

[Jogler]

In between painting and plastering walls (rinse and repeat...) we have been dipping into the puzzle and certainly got a lol moment. Very clever and an appropriate denouement.

[perseverer]

flocker - can I encourage you not to give up -you'll realise why if you manage to complete the puzzle

....(and my earlier comment was not meant to be in any way disparaging - apologies if you interpreted it that way, and as Zabadak has put it -rather succinctly- dead-eye's comment is wrong.)

[aldanna]

midozalam and bobbycollins: thank you for the encouragement and the idea that this may still be possible (mind you, I sometimes think it may be fortunate for they who happily announce they have done it in 10 minutes and wasn't it hilarious that they are only a username on a website). I have veered from Charlie and the CF to trying eldest grandchild on Swallows and Amazons, but am going home tomorrow and will pick the crossword up again in the peace and quiet of the ancestral towers Up North.

[silversolver]

Yes, this was good fun. I managed to complete most of the grid on the train home from Twickenham yesterday (giving my vocal chords a rest from some over-enthusiastic renditions of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot") then finished things off this evening. A minor criticism.... I am not sure that the 4 word phrase, whilst no doubt familiar to most on this board, is in common use. However, I thoroughly enjoyed piecing the grid together and the endgame - thanks, Xanthippe!

[Zabadak]

Sorry Aldanna if I (or anyone else) came across as insensitive: it took me a lot longer than 10 minutes struggling through the twisty clues, but the result really did make me laugh out loud. It helped me with the second part of the instruction to make sure I had my bars marked in really clearly. And you can have my email if you want it!
silversolver: you have my envy: I only saw the match on the box. England's second try will live long in the memory! (Now I've upset the Aussies!)

[flocker]

After the labours of Hercules I have a full grid and am pretty sure it's accurate. Now to untie the Gordian knot with the two phrases and the girl's name which I have. As a fairly new solver, I'm not quite certain what the instruction "bars must be marked" means (not the knid of bars I was nearly driven to by this I imagine). I assume it's a just question of marking/emphasining the line divisions between the first letters of separate answers - à la Mephisto??
Perseverer (aptly named here), thanks for your advice - not taken amiss at all

[daagg]

flocker, the bars are the thick lines which are used to delimit the answers in this type of crossword - it's thus called a "barred grid" rather than the usual "blocked grid" (I think that's right!). Sometimes the preamble insists that such things are done, sometimes with good reason.

[contendo]

Contemplating my completed grid I cannot see how following the second part of the instruction is going to result in anything usable, assuming that the instruction relates to the subject of Flocker's recent query. Can someone who fully understands this crossword tell me whether if I submit my unmutilated grid with the 4-word phrase, will that be valid, or must I embark on some surgery?