Listener 4609 Where Next? By Harribobs

[Hagen]

Harribobs can always be relied on to produce a spectacular grid construction - and so he has here. Still, I found the refilling of the grid to be an unrewarding slog, not because the final grid appears to consist of random letters with no discernible pattern. Working out the final place names was satisfying when I got there at last, but again there doesn't seem to be any connection between the destinations. I couldn't see the point of the original cycling of letters either - which suggests I'm missing some subtleties here. If so, apologies to the setter.

[perseverer]

Ok, it passed away a few hours sitting in the sun (shade actually) in the garden, but while admiring what it must have taken to construct the puzzle, I'll say thanks to Harribobs, but was there a point?

[Hagen]

Just noticed my typo which should read "not LEAST because the final grid appears to consist of random letters with no discernible pattern." Where is that edit facility again?

[contendo]

Where is everybody? Perhaps they've all disappeared into one of Harribobs's more obscure locations. This was certainly a slog after a relatively easy initial grid fill. I found I had one too many letters in the revised grid, which caused chaos until I eventually identified the culprit, but the dénouement was satisfying after all that effort.

[emcee]

I agree with all that's been said. The clues were relatively straightforward, the grid refill was a pain (went wrong twice), but then the final challenge was at least worth the effort.

I presume the cyclical element of the puzzle hinted at a cycling tour of the UK (maybe?).

Nothing really thematic but I was staggered by the achievement of refilling a grid using an ordered (by length) list of acrosses without revisiting any cell: the number of degrees of freedom available to the setter to allow this must be pretty small.

[Philoctetes]

This was not so much a crossword for solvers, so much as a technical exercise in virtuoso setting. I can appreciate that. But cluing was at times less than challenging; one could actually ignore half the clues if one was really lucky; there was no theme to connect the locations; there was no reason for the "cycling" other than to bring some possible relevance to the down clues; the "endgame" was no such thing, simply a slog of counting the alphabet and eliminating some obvious possibilities. Where was the logic, the wit, the PDM? A great disappointment compared with other recent offerings (even last week's!). Have you guessed I didn't enjoy it?

[pushmi-pullyu]

I agree with you Philoctetes. I am currently working on the two unclued locations, but I can't say I'm enjoying it. If a g & t doesn't clarify things I shall give it up as a bad job.

[pushmi-pullyu]

The g & t has revealed the first unclued location. Would a second g & t repeat the trick?

[Scorpius]

I think Philoctetes' commentary is spot on.

Like emcee, I assumed the cycling of entries was a thematic hint at the Tour of Britain, but we ended up with a rather strange Britain in the second grid. I suppose 'tour' has to interpreted rather cryptically, but it's a bit of a stretch.

[pushmi-pullyu]

Didn't need the second g & t. Pleased to have finished, but a very low fun factor.

[upsetter]

Agreed Hagen.

This formidable feat of composition seems to be rather a waste of Harribobs' undoubted talent.

[Cruncher]

Poor Mr Green

[Hagen]

Good point Cruncher. I haven’t sent a puzzle in since the Boer War so tend to forget the task puzzles like this impose on the statistician. I guess that if the top row of the grid is correct, the rest almost certainly would be too in this case, so there is a potential time saver there - but no doubt Our Trevor would balk at such a lazy option!

[sunny-dave]

What a disappointment - I always look forward to Harribobs as a setter - and the primary gridfill here was a pleasant and interesting task ...

... but the secondary refill was just a vile slog with only the carrot of deducing the final two destinations as a reward - in any other circumstances but lockdown it would have been on the "life's too short" pile.

Undoubtedly a formidable piece of setting - but not one to bring much joy to the solver.

Sorry Harribobs

[0pt0]

I thought this was an excellent Listener and the negative comments on this site make me feel sorry for poor Harribobs. It must have been a very difficult puzzle to compile and the second grid fill was a real test of concentration, requiring (in my case) several attempts before I got the right one. I also feel sorry for John Green as this will be a very difficult set of entries to check. Thanks Harribobs.