Listener Crossword 4128 Ringtone by Trev

[Zabadak]

Evening all. Once again I find myself staring at a completed grid and a completed instruction, the former quite straightforward, the latter requiring a leap of imagination that so far eludes me. All the words in the instruction individually make sense, collectively they don't - yet. Currently I'm hazarding "anything at all" or possibly "annoying" as reasonable entries in the box at the bottom. Regards and best wishes to everyone.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes Zabadak, I am in exactly the same position and have been for a while. I was wondering when someone was going to start a thread. Fine clueing, I thought but where now?

[contendo]

A pretty easy grid fill but my sequence of letters is only intermittently comprehensible. Obviously a bit more work required.

[AHearer]

And another in the same boat. I can see how I might use the exemplar to generate things of the right sort, but not at the moment a way of doing the same where the instruction is to be applied for real.

[dr b]

Me five! I will return to it after my alma mater, Illinois, finishes crushing hated Michigan in this basketball game I'm watching.

[AHearer]

Oh, I see. My initial barking was up the wrong tree, as I was trying to be too all-embracing.

[flocker]

i have a completed grid too. Is the peamble quite clear? Which letters are required? The ""extra letter"s AND the ones "not indicated" - or just the latter? "These letters" could be interpreted either way, couldn't they?

[AHearer]

You need both, flocker.

[Zabadak]

I have both, but the instruction makes no sense to me, even if I treat it as a cryptic clue. Once again, I'm feeling dense because whatever is plain and obvious to the setter, and anyone who "gets" it, is a sideways leap away in a direction I can't yet see.

[AndrewG-S]

Grid done. Have instruction. No pdm. More thought needed.

[dr b]

All sorted.

Illinois was outscored 17-2 down the stretch and lost. What the heck?! I know you were all dying to know that.

[midazolam]

I enjoyed this. All fair on balance, enough accessible clues to start off but hard in places. The endgame, although needing some lateral thinking was a nice PDM. i still need to work out a couple of wordplays. One of those crosswords where one could slip up quite easily.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, a fine one that will need very careful checking.

[AndrewG-S]

Dr b sorry to hear Illinois lost. England also lost v Bangladesh in cricket world cup in a game they should really have won. Now need to beat windies to stay in. Good puzzle which as others have said will need careful checking.

[cluelessJoe]

23.56 - Not a great time to be starting on the endgame, too good an opportunity to miss something. Slowly does it, and will have to re-check in the morning. Nice puzzle.

[trux]

Improving ... now member of Saturday Morning Club (which is pretty good as I had guests here last night, and so couldn't even look at it until I sneaked off to bed). Fortunately managed to kick them out early today ! Think I have all the stuff required, but will be double-checking carefully before licking the glue on the envelope. Thanks Trev for enjoyable jaunt.... (even if some clues could have justified more than one extra or omitted letter - e.g. 20A or 3D)

[bobbycollins]

hey dr b, I don't see Fleetwood Town stuffing Crawley Town 17-2 this afternoon, but I'll live in hope whilst stuffing curry & chips down my neck behind the home goal.

Nice puzzle BTW

[dr b]

Yes, it was a nice puzzle. My initial impression was that it was going to be a piece of cake as I had the right half filled in record time. But I bogged down on the left side and then spend an equal amount of time trying to justify what I knew had to be the missing/extra letters. And the endgame was quite clever.

Good luck to Fleetwood Town, bobbyc. Two touchdowns and a field goal doesn't seem unreasonable, so maybe 17 points is in the cards.

[dead-eye]

looked straightforward to start with.got a bit trickier towards the end. had a little groan at the finale.

[Speravi]

Time spent in contemplating anagrams of Listener titles is rarely wasted...

[aldanna]

I'm now where Zabadak was at 19.45 last night (completed grid and completed but meaningless instruction) - although in mitigation we had friends round to eat last night so I had to cook, share the wine they brought, even talk to them, so I didn't really get going till today. Some clever clueing in this, I enjoyed it. Just hope the p d's for me this time!