Listener No 4411: Extra English By Raffles

[AHearer]

That was fun. I made ridiculously heavy weather of the top right-hand quadrant and the two clued entries with clashes, and I had to check a few entries where I was pretty sure of what they had to be but needed to go back to check the wordplay to be absolutely certain. Happy with the endgame, so many thanks to Raffles for an entertaining puzzle.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, we too made ridiculously heavy weather of that quadrant and struggled with some of that wordplay but I have enjoyed the 'endgame'.
Many thanks to Raffles.

[Hagen]

Excellent - very enjoyable. I rather like the "extra letter in clues" device for generating a message because there's little or no ambiguity, so it's not as fiddly as misprints/redundant letters from wordplay can be. Also full marks for grid changes leading to real words - this isn't always the case but it's far more satisfying when it is.

Nice theme well implemented. Thanks Raffles.

[olichant]

Funnily enough, I didn't find the top-right so difficult - but one of the clashes took me a very long time, as did the remark.

I really enjoyed the clues - some of the extra letters were very sneakily hidden!

[tnap]

A nice construction - all real words is, as Hagen says, very satisfying . I made a random decision to start at the bottom, so got the theme early. However, I then managed to take a ridiculous amount of time to solve 22D (groan).

[upsetter]

Exactly what a Listener crossword should be.

[hankir]

Now stuck.
Any hint on 7D, 25A and 32A may get me restarted.

[starwalker]

An excellent puzzle in so many ways, and yet the sloppiness of 4D annoys me. Thanks Raffles.

[olichant]

Hankir - feel free to email me at olichant 08 at Gmail dot com if you would like a hint.

[hankir]

Hi olichant:
Thanks for the offer.
I sent you an email.

[s_pugh]

Not one of my favourites I have to say, bit of a slog and I only got 7dn retrospectively. Have to admire the construction though with the replacements - neat. Thanks Raffles.

[icynorth]

Very enjoyable, thanks Raffles. I did spot the two misprint entries before the incorrect alternatives, which was my only (very minor) disappointment.

[upsetter]

Well Icynorth, you did better than us.
We got those two entries and submitted correctly more by luck than judgement.
Only an email from RR revealed quite how clever the composition of the two clues was, albeit a trifle contrived.

[borealis]

This one was a page-turner - of the BRB, that is. Quite a few groans at my own slow completion of clues, and some very good clue construction, with fun definitions. Strained the brain; a real Listener, as upsetter has said. Thank you, Raffles.