Listener 4126 Arthurian Legend by Corvettes

[dr b]

Wow. Absolutely brilliant. I tried to rotate the rings mentally, but got out the scissors after a few minutes. Then half my letters were upside down, so I printed out a new grid and re-filled it. An incredible feat of construction, I thought. Difficult but lots of fun.

[borealis]

There's a nice theme this week. It would be very easy to give away, with even a comment. Please, don't!

[borealis]

Wow - just realised. My first ever Friday club post - if only just!

[AHearer]

Agreed: quite beautiful. A gem of a puzzle. I spent a happy half hour with my favourite piece of software drawing and rotating the rings of letters -- a task which would have taken five minute's with dr b's more hands-on approach, but I enjoy the practice!

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, please, please don't spoil it this week. I shall certainly have to adopt Dr B's method.

[cluelessJoe]

Only just started this, and stopped by to bookmark. Fairly certain I know what the theme is already, but will certainly take note of Dr. B's tip for the last bit.

[starwalker]

About half way through and think tha I have the theme. Not as easy as other circulars due to less generous checking. Will take dr b's suggestion for the finale and will say no more so as not to give anything away, even inadvertently.

[silversolver]

Yes, what a superb puzzle. Some excellent (and difficult) clueing, a wonderful construction and a very good PDM. Even after I had worked out the theme and completed the rotations, it took a while to find the quotation. Very appropriate that this was such a good crossword.

[dead-eye]

wonderful fun with scissors and sellotape. helped to deal with what looked like orange peel.great construction.

[jabone]

Yippee! Saturday club and can now give full attention to England. Very clever and a fitting tribute.

[AndrewG-S]

Brilliant puzzle - first candidate this year for the Gold Cup I think.

[tilbee]

Found this one tough this afternoon. Finally established the dedicatee (took a little research on the web for this), but still unsure about one fnal letter in the grid, and still need to do the rotations. However, pub is now calling and this will wait until tomorrow,

PS: One answer did not seem to be in Chambers, at least not in the form required for grid entry ?

[IainGrace]

Read rubric and, without starting clues yet, have a hunch re dedicatee.

[tilbee]

OK - just long enough whilst girlfriend getting ready to confirm final letter (had to laugh at this clue; took me ages to work this out from very limited number of posibilities) which now forms first letter of the thematic word.

[trux]

I appoint myself the first member of the Nearly But Not Quite Saturday Club .. too tired to finish off tonite even though I (nearly) have total gridfill and have (not quite) completed all of the quotation ... was pleased with my scissorwork and sellotaping ... Clearly an ace puzzle even if more than one answer was not in my antique BRB ....

[kwyjibo]

I rewrote it on a scrap of paper. Gave up on the quotation for a while but when I came back afresh saw it quite quickly. Very clever construction and references.

[contendo]

I've been staring at an almost complete grid for ages now but am flummoxed by 2 & 31 radial, and does the wordplay for 1 (arc) appear in the BRB as given in the clue?

[JackDeCrow]

Went for printing it out again rather than the scissors! Truly a lovely puzzle and really rather moving. Couldn't help but chuckle when reading on the internet why the dedicatee was so-named.

[tilbee]

Likewise kwyjobo. Agree with other comments an excellent construction.

Contendo - exactly the same spot where I drew a blank for a long while (2 & 31).

[pushmi-pullyu]

What a lovely puzzle. It helped to photocopy the grid and enlarge it prior to getting out the scissors. It took me a while to understand the wordplay of 2 radial, but I thought it was very clever.