Listener 4510

[Flocker14]

There must be something wrong with the club version - is the preamble missing?

[starwalker]

I have made a start on the assumption that all will become clear, eventually.

[Lie-in King]

I asked a friend that can access it & he says there is a line under the Name/Address part that says -

"The two entries without clues give a phrase from a quotation."

HTH?

[starwalker]

. . and suddenly all becomes clearer, but still far to go.

[Philoctetes]

All falling nicely into place. It is good for once to have a preamble that doesn't tower over the puzzle

[kdgs2]

The preamble is unusual for very good reason - I was lucky to work out what was going on before I'd solved any clues, which made things much easier. The construction was excellent given the constraints involved, and the phrase brought a smile when I finally worked out what it was. I think that this provided quite a balanced challenge, given the mix of easier and almost-impenetrable puzzles lately - and from what I believe is a first-time setter for the Listener. Thanks Pock!

[starwalker]

Certainly an impressive debut. Some tough clues in there, even when the theme had been cracked, and an apt quotation. Thanks Pock.

[Hagen]

Much less graft required than last week's puzzle but by no means a pushover. Despite the theme being guessable at the start, there were plenty of clever misdirections in the clues and the neatness of the grid entries is to be applauded. If this is a debut, it is an excellent one. Thanks Pock!

[olichant]

I really enjoyed this. Great grid, nice theme - some easy clues, some really quite tricky clues. And the preamble made me smile. Neat, clever and fun.

[Scorpius]

Probably one of the shortest preambles ever. I do remember a shorter on - "Sir John has the answer."

Although it didn't take as long as last week's I still found it pretty tough. I got the gimmick about two-thirds of the way in but still struggled a bit until I guessed a bit of the quotation, which fortunately was indexed in ODQ, then sailed home.

A very neat idea consistently executed. Lots of PDMs as I cracked the very good clues.

[emcee]

Having spent most of Friday and Saturday catching up with last week's superb puzzle I started this week's straight afterwards. Because of this I think I found it easier than had I been out of Listener practice for five or six days.

The cluemanship here was excellent. I can't say more about the quirkiness of the clues but they made for tricky solving which was great.

The PDM was very satisfying -- I must have had a virtual blank grid for a good while.

The idea of a short preamble has always appealed as it's up to the solver to find out what on Earth is going on.

I liked it, Pock. More please.

[icynorth]

I’m another who started this late after the hangover of 4509, and like most here I thought the clueing was brilliant. Thanks, Pock!

[12barblues]

Tricky solve despite knowing early on way at was up. I wouldn’t be surprised if Pock turned out to be a pseudonym for another thematic setter! Hard to believe this is a first puzzle.