Listener 4689 Great Western By Buff

[emcee]

A decent puzzle with a good mixture of clue difficulty.

The combinations produced results that I had been unaware of before. It's amazing what you don't notice!

Thanks, Buff.

[Hagen]

Indeed, a decent puzzle and nice to have a simple, unambiguous ending. Certainly on the easy side but none the worse for that. One of those puzzles where you're glad you've learned something. Good clues too, with the exception of 29, which I'm surprised made it past the editors!

[HawkCrossword]

I found this fairly tough, and fell into a number of traps clearly set for the unwary.

Only 30 clues, but much to enjoy in each of them - many thanks, Buff!

[NickorWan]

Yes, much to enjoy, thanks. I see from the Listener site that Buff’s first Listener was 56 years ago. Respect Sir.

I have known what I think others have just learnt since I was a teenager, but I suspect that just reflects badly on me. In certain situations I put myself in you needed to know.

Btw, I don’t have a problem with 29, Chambers is the guide in such matters and supports the clue.

[Hagen]

It's the phonetics I have a problem with in 29, Nick. Unless I've misread them, they don't match?

[emcee]

I worried about the phonetics there too.

[NickorWan]

According to my Chambers Ipad, they match, in all the three cases, Hagen, if you know what I mean.

[Hagen]

That's true - the app gives an alternative that my CD-ROM does not. So it's not as bad as I thought, but still not the best clue in the puzzle by any means!

[HawkCrossword]

Is there a record span between a setter's first and last Listener? 56 years must be right up there.

I don't believe I've attempted a 1960s Listener, but I imagine they must have been very different.

[upsetter]

Good fun but we only found four of the extra letters, this wasn't an issue as we knew the subject quite well and the first two letters confirmed the collaborator.

Thanks, Buff.

[sunny-dave]

Nice and simple - the collaborator was the last thing I confirmed though - some nicely hidden extra letters.

One of the two examples was something I'd forgotten, too.

Thanks Buff - and welcome back

[Dim16]

Agree 100% with the sentiment expressed in the title.

Lots of the clues have defeated me this week, so maybe time to invest in some form of Chambers?

[Dim16]

I categorise clues I don't manage to solve as either Doable, Tough or What The Funicular. Will be interesting on New Years Day to see the breakdown of today's unsolvables.

[GregW]

I raced through, theme sorted, but stuck on 1d despite having letters 1/3/6. Anyone give me a hint?

[sunny-dave]

Feeding the 1/3/6 letters of my answer to 1d into Word Matcher gives only one (correct) hit

https://www.quinapalus.com/cgi-bin/match

[sunny-dave]

Dim16 : I'm amazed (and somewhat in awe) that you ever get anywhere near solving a Listener without access to a Chambers - preferably a 'searchable' one rather than the paper edition.

I can recommend the iPad/iPhone app but (if you have an iMac) then the MacOS version is even better as it allows 'full text' searches on the whole dictionary - rather than just the headwords.