Listener 4208 Good to Go by Flying Tortoise

[Ruthrobin]

This was tremendous fun from start to finish - from that hilarious title with all it suggests, right to the pdm and lovely endgame. Sheer magic, Flying Tortoise!

[Whenland]

What a relief to be able to complete this one without too much anguish. In the post now.

TB69 - if you still need an explanation of 26D email me at steve at whenland dot com

[jumperjudy]

TB69 I'll swap you 26d for 19a! judy_petran(at)hotmail(dot)com

[trux]

TB69: wordplay first, def second (needing modification and a bit loose, hence "perhaps" at the end) ...

[olichant]

After the white heat of a quick solve, I find myself with one modification too few - rats. And I bet it probably affects an unch, knowing my luck. Back to the drawing board...

[Staurologist]

Wicked! Or do I mean wizard! An enjoyable solve and an entertaining double take in the title. Very reminiscent of something that Apex might have done in his heyday, although I think that he would have put the full quote, minus the important word, around the perimeter of a 12 x 12 (thus satisfying TheBear69) and would have split 1 across and put it somewhere symmetrical in the middle. He would probably also have ensured that what restores the relevant clues would not have been found in the rest. On the other hand, I don't think I've seen the top line emerging in quite this way before. Has anyone else?

[Scree]

I also enjoyed this - some pretty easy clues, though I got stuck for a while on 9 and 11D and so took some time to figure out 1A.

As for 4207, I only solved one clue on an initial browse and gave up on it. When I looked at it again later I did 3 more straight away, so maybe I should have tried harder. Still, too late now.

4206 was fine in the end, but along the way I got slightly annoyed by clues that were too easy (except for the gimmick of extra letters added). 42A, for instance, was hardly a cryptic clue at all. I guess it's hard to get the balance right when there's potentially a whole extra puzzle to figure out after you solve the crossword!

[soliloquy]

Is there anywhere I can find the solution to 4208?

[Texasetes]

soliloquy: the solution to a Listener puzzle appears three weeks after publication of the puzzle, so you have only a few days to wait.

[soliloquy]

Thank you Texasetes. I found the puzzle in THE TIMES on 22nd September. I had never seen it before and couldn't complete it. Once I have seen the solution, maybe I will have a better idea of how to approach future puzzles.