Listener 4122, Heart by Phi

[Cruncher]

Thought I'd start a thread for one. Rather relieved that the Friday club are quite on this one. Have a smattering of answers but a long way to go. Happy solving all!

[AndrewG-S]

Excellent crossword, agree with the sentiments above that this is what the Listener should be like. Start with read through and very few solves, then with some perseverance and ingenuity manage to tease out a few more. This speeds up rapidly as the grid fill falls into place. Now have full grid and first part of highlighting, need to find the further thematic phrase

[tilbee]

Gave this up for the pub last night, but back to it now in front of the tennis. Finally have completed original grid, and have words A&B. Now just (?) need to work out how to fit this all back together again.

[trux]

Tilbee - at least the tennis did not distract you for long (hasn't anyone else noticed how Andy becomes "Scottish" rather than "British" as soon as he strats losing ?)

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, and British when he wins - just like Aberdeen's North Sea oil!

[tristram37]

I have to disagree entirely that this is what a Listener crossword should be. A crossword, by definition, involves words crossing. In other words solving one clue should offer some help towards solving another. When one has to solve most of the clues cold this just doesn't happen. I am doing slightly better than Teuchter in that I have solved 13 clues; but I find the whole thing very dispiriting.

[7lattens]

Maybe after a relatively less taxing crossword lat week, this week's Listener has certainly restored the balance (at the very least) and with only ten clues solved I can see this possibly becoming too time consuming !!!

[aldanna]

After being delighted by starting the year the year with three correct Listeners (albeit with one not making the following-Friday club) I am glad to see others are finding this one hard too. All cold solving so far, I have half the answers, word A, an idea about word B and the endgame - but not a mark in the grid. It may be as wonderful as some of you say but it's too hard for me. I am admitting defeat.

[tilbee]

Oh dear - struggling on the end game (again). As already stated I have completed original grid, and have words A&B, plus understand relevance of title. Have idea of what I need to do, but unclear of how to make my original grid fully fit the solution grid.

Any gentle nudges to help push me over the line ?

[bellabee]

well i've waited quite a while but the old spirit of gentle encouragement from the senior members of this 'club' seems unlikely to materialise. here is [hopefully] a gentle hint tilbee. - the preamble is very carefully worded with 'producing new pairs of letters in single cells' - whilst not misleading it would have been more helpful with the addition of an article. i thought this was a very clever crossword but the absence of answer lengths was a bit of a liberty, and the clue for 37 was stretching things quite a bit.

[AndrewG-S]

tristram37, I found that words could start to be joined together relatively early (even without 1), I think I had about 10-15 answers, which for me then satisfied the crossword definition in a rather elegant way. I don't much care for a lot of cold solving either!

[midazolam]

My problem was that I had a completely different original grid with 15 columns than what was (probably) intended. This led me up the wrong path, so my next set of double letters were wrong, despite having the correct original double letters. So beware!

[BlackHugh]

Sorry to lower the tone of the, as usual, high quality of the posts but I have to share this word, hitherto unknown to me. I discovered it in a, so far unsuccessful, attempt to solve 34. Callipygous.

[7lattens]

Obviously need a stern rebuke !!!

[contendo]

Have cold-solved 28 clues, have word A and think I've figured out the junction of across/down clues, using the symmetry of word-lengths (though that is complicated by the two-letter cells), but I can't get any reasonable mesh of across and down clues. Can't see any way forward at the moment.

[bellabee]

i think an old ev or listener might have used that word as a theme blackhugh - had to write w in a particularly suggestive way to illustrate the theme if i remember right.

[kwyjibo]

Toughest for a long time methinks. Although I had an idea of what the theme might be it took along time to get all the pieces of the jigsaw in the right place.

[BlackHugh]

very funny bellabee - wish I'd done that one :-)

[AHearer]

Yes, bellabee, it was definitely an EV. Some time in the last year, I think.

[bellabee]

of course ahearer - too cheeky for the listener!

[fyellin]

Arggh. Can't find the second two-word theme phrase.