Listener 4316: Delightful Punishment By Mynot

[emcee]

I've searched using several keywords but can't find another thread so ...

This was a rewarding puzzle: once the penny drops you think, "yes, of course; why didn't I spot that earlier?"

Many thanks MynoT for an entertaining puzzle with some nice clues (I liked the Morse one!)

[petefoxes]

Great stuff. Haven't had time for the really hard puzzles recently. This was a nice mix of some easy and some tough clues. Enjoyed the PDM and have the word; just two stragglers in the bottom-left to solve. Thanks, MynoT.

[s_pugh]

Found the clues a fantastic mix of easy and evil (Morse one especially) but had a full grid after a few hours. That was on Saturday. Two more days and I finally found the 15-letter word. &%$£**$!!! Another great puzzle. Thanks Mynot and apologies for wishing extreme harm on your good self for the last 2 days … ;¬)

[jim360]

Interesting philosophical question: if one solved all clashes correctly and was able to describe the method, but didn't know the word for it, would you still get marked right?

[Ruthrobin]

No, Jim, I am 100% sure you wouldn't, though I feel that there is a gap between one's awareness of what the method is and the identification of that term to describe it.

[AHearer]

I agree, ruthrobin, especially given the hint.

[UglyUncle]

In a rare moment of serendipity I deduced the 15-letter word before solving any of the clues, which deprived me of a more satisfying PDM at the point where MynoT clearly intended it to occur. Couldn't the puzzle have been given a four-letter title with the method revealed gradually by misprints, redundant letters or similar?

Like AHearer I have a pedantic gripe about three (identical) clashes, but this is offset by the pleasure I always feel when the final grid turns out as this one does.

[Philoctetes]

RR and Jim have raised a question in my mind. I have a choice of quite justified words to write, one modern, obscure, not in the BRB, but in use to describe something akin to the process, and one that is obviously what is intended (and in the BRB). RRs reference to a "gap" suggests my first word, as, IMHO, no such gap is possible with my second. Is it possible the first word has just not been considered by MynoT? Could it be accepted as correct?

[Contrarian]

UglyUncle,

I would guess that you are in a very small minority - possibly a minority of one - of solvers who deduced the 15-letter word so quickly. I think that MynoT rightly judged that, given the presence of clashes and some very tricky clues, the puzzle was difficult enough as it is.

[British_Olympics]

..... made unnecessarily more difficult by an ambiguous entry at 4 across. This yielded a possible answer of (W)EDGED, in the sense of a door being stopped, which in a puzzle with clashes in 'several cells' wasn't really fair on the solver - test solvers please take note !

[IainGrace]

Got there but the PDM was a struggle and almost hit or miss. Chambers Thesaurus is of scant help.