Listener 4124 Travel Guide by Aedites

[Zabadak]

Much more fun for me this week, challenging but not daunting. It gets much easier once the theme is grasped, but the final straight line takes a bit of spotting. One of those which manages to be educational as well as pretty, and nicely put together. Appreciation to Aedites.

[Jogler]

What fun! We really enjoyed this one and it had the seeds of lots of little red herrings. In order to break our line of running to catch up with the rear gunners we got on a plane to the States. Here, dr b's brainwaves have rubbed off and we are at least in the same stadium as the hares! Many thanks Aedites for an enjoyable sight seeing tour.

[Clamzy]

AndrewG-S Further to last week's discussion on prizes, you may be interested to hear that the winner of 4121 was Andy Mullins who says it's his first win after some 15 years of entries.

[milford15]

I thoroughly enjoyed this one - the first Listener I have managed to complete on my own after 2 years of trying i.e without nudges from a good friend! (I do not submit entries if I have been helped though.) I am unsure of 3 wordplays but happy to have a full grid for submission, and look forward to the solution to explain those. A lovely puzzle - thanks Aedites.

[AndrewG-S]

15 years!! I think there are about 500ish correct answers a week, so (assuming I submit correctly every week - a foolish assumption), I have a 1/500 chance each week, so a 1/10 each year. I submit two crosswords (EV and Listener) so that makes it 1/5. I could adjust a bit for incorrects to push the odds out a little - but no way should I be waiting 15 YEARS!!!! The only good news is that there may be a new edition of BRB by then so the prize may be of some use.

[tilbee]

Clamzy - think I must have been very lucky. I won a nice set of pens on around my 5th correct submission on 3756, and sat back contented and retired from submitting ever since.

[tilbee]

Except for 4000, where I thought all my efforts at least derserved as a go at a prize.

[Clamzy]

Well Andy may think he's waited a long time but I am still waiting since 1994 and there were 5 prizes each week at one stage. Before that I submitted Mephisto for even more years - Nada:-(

[Ottorino]

Clamzy, I started submitting Listeners in 1984 too and became perversely proud that I'd won nothing. Sadly, last year I won a couple of runners-up in the space of 4 weeks and am now the proud owner of two identical Colin Dexter puzzle books.

[Ottorino]

Sorry Clamzy, I meant 1994 of course.

[AndrewG-S]

Excellent then I should be a runner up in 2025, by which time Qatar will have hosted the world cup.

[bobbycollins]

Another cracking puzzle, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Unravelling the theme was most satisfying.

I too have one of those Colin Dexter books, which I won a couple of years ago - Chambers must have a shedful of remainders.

[jamesah]

A very enjoyable puzzle. One quibble- my line is continuous but certainly not straight!!

[Ruthrobin]

Jamesah - mine is straight and continuous - use a fine pen!

[aldanna]

I think I beat the odds on prizes. As well as the January Club Monthly I mentioned recently, I had 2 Mephisto runner-ups last year (£5 each for the grandchildren), and two the year before plus a Listener runner-up that never came, a Sunday first prize pen and a Sunday runner-up pen.

[Philoctetes]

Another thought. Did the squares marked "X" detract from the overall satisfaction? I feel that, without them, the PDM might have been greater, and there is still enough material to get there.

[starwalker]

Yes, I felt that the squares marked "X" were unnecessary. I'm sure it would have helped to improve the finale, if they were absent.

[bellabee]

yes - i thought that was far too kind, and it just emphasises the southern bias really.

[Clamzy]

Congratulations Aldana - I'm thinking of bringing my entries round to your postbox to see if that will improve my luck:-)
I think Andrew was being a bit optimistic in assessing chances. The fact is that I'm 499 TO 1 against next week and every week.

[Eril]

Well I'm still not sure about the wordplay for 33ac. I have checked one possible synonym endlessly, but it isn't a synonym according to the BRB. Tried looking for endless synonyms, and still no joy. 45ac did trip me up initially, but finally saw the correct reading, 33ac I just can't see another reading for. Very frustrating! Fortunately the answer/entry is obvious.

[turast]

Winning the prize. For many years I've wondered about the method of drawing the winners, and exactly how random it might be. If all correct solutions go into a sack and then that sack is tipped out, then early entries would be favoured, as the ones nearer the top of the sack (later entries) would be buried. If they are plucked straight from the sack, the ones nearer the top would be favoured. I also sometimes wonder about the geographical distribution of the winners. Presumably entries arriving at St. Albans will have some sort of geographical distribution in terms of when they arrive. I don't even know if you can enter online, but do subscribers to the Times have that facility? If so, how is a balance kept between "snail mail" and electronic? Do solvers from Downunder & Stateside send entries through the post?