Listener 4691 Something In Common By Lionheart

[Hagen]

Many thanks to the Times for providing a Christmas Listener, which I particularly appreciate as the current situation meant I couldn't get over to the UK to see my family. A nice festive Listener, with some excellent clues and an interesting endgame. I'll admit I reverse engineered the three normal clues from thematic possibilities for the answers, as I couldn't solve them in their own right - particularly as I was misled by a shoal of (intentional?) red herrings. All clear and unambiguous at the end and I loved the clever wording of some of the preamble.

Merry Christmas all.

[Scorpius]

A really enjoyable crossword that invoved quite a bit of puzzling. I thought it was going to be a cinch because I got several answers straight off, but it became significantly harder lower down the grid. I feared the endgame was going to be more specialised than it turned out to be. Some lovely clues here and there. I found two of the normal clues pretty tough.
I'm a fan of 1812, which I guessed quite early on.

[Scorpius]

P.S. Merry Christmas to everyone, setters and solvers alike.

My Christmas celebration was last night, European style, so today has been free to devote to the Listener.

[HawkCrossword]

Merry Christmas, all.

Yes, a top-quality Listener to end the year. Like you, Scorpius, I spotted 18 12, and was expecting something else for the finale. Ambiguities in the extra letters meant I couldn't work it out from hint c), but after sleeping on it the substitution came to mind.

Great challenge - many thanks, Lionheart!

[upsetter]

Until the very end we were dreading that the depiction of the thematic material was to be presented in a way that would be difficult for us to resolve.
Thanks to Lionheart for letting us off lightly.
Thankfully the preamble wasn't written by 18 12.

Happy Christmas to one and all.

[GregW]

How do I access it this week? I take the Times via the app, but there is no Listener in the downloadable puzzles for 24th, 25th or 26th December.

[roslyn251254]

i think it's in Mondays Times tomorrow....or i could email you a copy?

[roslyn251254]

i got it from the puzzles page online version ...crossword club ...on Friday at 4pm as per usual...

[Cruncher]

Only just realised that this one has gone live and looked forward to sorting it out.
Despite their ever more vociferous protests each year I put together a little Xmas crossword for my extended family. If anyone here would like a non-too demanding 30 minutes of fun feel free to email me at [email protected] and I'll send you a copy

[sunny-dave]

Excellent puzzle - hard clues, (very) tricky missing letters and a grid fill that was perfect in its initial configuration.

Normally I tend to grumble about puzzles with loads of non-words in the final grid (it's a pet hate of mine) - but in this case having the final substitution generate all real words in crossing entries would be nigh on impossible - so I'll cut the setter a bit of slack, in the festive spirit.

Thanks Lionheart - compliments of the season to you and, indeed, all the setters who provide so much fun throughout the year.

Dave x

[olichant]

Great puzzle - loved the way it worked out and the full significance of the preamble. Happy New Year to everyone here!

[Philoctetes]

That was....."lovely"

[Dim16]

Horrible Puzzle if I am correct in my understanding of the thematic conversion needed for the three normal clues ie it requires specialist knowledge which not everyone has - I certainly don't.

Oh well, next year is nearly here.

[Neveracrossword]

Dim16, I certainly didn't have the specialist knowledge, but navigated my way through to the end without needing to learn...

[Philoctetes]

Dim16 - isn't that the basis of most Listeners? My "specialist knowledge" (Ancient Greece, Classical Music, WW1) rarely comes up, but I am quite willing to delve into the tedious world of "Science" so long as enough ways in are given (I still see red about Maxwell's Demon, though). This one was full of such tips at every stage. Welcome the opportunity to expand - as we do at Christmas

[Dim16]

Philoctetes

My gripe is that solving the 3 normal clues hasn't helped me much since I lack the specialist knowledge to convert them. I have done my best to use websites and indeed I think I have converted 11a but no luck with the other two as yet which is frustrating. It seems that 18 12 is fairly well known so will explore this avenue. Of course I could simply solve all the clues (I should be so lucky)

[Dim16]

Have identified 18 12 but this now throws my theory as to the thematic conversion into some doubt. Time to leave it for tonight and tackle it afresh tomorrow.

But I do now appreciate the wording of part of the preamble.

[Dim16]

The key seems to be to identify (c) but this is beyond me because I am finding the bottom of the grid very tough, not helped by being unable to convert the answer to the third normal clue. So since I am not clever enough to guess the substitution I await the solution with some interest if only to see if it changes my negative view of this puzzle.

[Cruncher]

Ambled my way gently through this. Was only disappointed that the Yorkshire Moors didn't get a mention at the final step but there we are. 18 12 is much missed