Listener Crossword 4240: Forlor By Nutmeg

[trux]

Sheer joy! And wholly agree with her sentiments....skilfully put together, and with many a clever clue amongst them (particularly liked 32a and 17d). As ever, gridfill speeds up after PDM and with crossing letters. Many thanks, Nutmeg,...now for the snooker!

[Alan7777]

That was a challenge. Still a few word plays to work out but otherwise I've finished. Thanks Nutmeg.

[IainGrace]

Cracked it and just putting finishing touches to grid. Not sure we agree with the sentiment. Dare one say that we have to move with the times/Times?

[x_word_fan]

I thought it tough too - it was good to hear from The Times this week that subscribers to the paper's pay up front scheme are now to receive free membership Crossword Club as part of the package.

[Anapice]

Yes good news for those who subscribe to the online newspaper, but what of those who don't, and require only the crosswords?

[Ruthrobin]

Indeed, that is my concern that I have already raised on the Crossword Centre's message board. We are Crossword Club members but certainly don't want to have to start subscribing to the Times. This new situation seems very ominous.

[emcee]

Late starting this puzzle.

I thought this was a brilliant piece of work and I heartily concur with Nutmeg's sentiments. A great fan of the extra letters bod too.

As with others here, it was a very slow start due to there being so many tough clues. As soon as the penny dropped regarding the 10 special clues it was all made much easier.

Thanks, Nutmeg, for one of the best puzzles of the year to date.

[IainGrace]

Agree with Emcee. The phrase spelled out by the extra letters is a particularly fine way of rounding off the theme.

[perseverer]

Since you can complete the puzzle without the extra letter phrase, perhaps the editors felt that the fact that you would probably need the internet to fully understand its significance was excusable on this occasion - though it's obviously more satisfying (and educational) for the solver to get all the nuances of the construction.

[Philoctetes]

We are once more in "Maxwell" territory here. If, like me, you knew of the connection it was clear; if not, there is no real way of finding it without a search engine. Perhaps this is simply a reflection of modern information storage - have we lost the ability to think our way into the necessary research without Google? But once again I stress that this theme is no less fair than the numerous ones from other specialist areas.

[Ornis]

I really liked this: excellent and fair clueing, an amusing theme and a nugget of information as a bonus for those of us who didn't know the provenance.

Thanks, Nutmeg.

[AndrewG-S]

I found the cluing tricky but am nearly there now with one to go and the message still to find. With the sunny weather it is tough to find the time to finish it off. As I posted last week I was lucky enough to win the prize for the crossword. Some of you may find it slightly amusing that rather than a comforting thud announcing the arrival of Brewers on the doorstep, a small van pulled up. There was a typo on my delivery form and 31 copies of Brewers arrived in six boxes. I am rather hoping they come soon to relieve me of the surplus. Careful what you wish for!

[IainGrace]

The extra letter phrase could be important. We entered a couple of words in the grid which we thought were right but, on doing a final audit, we realised that we hadn't analysed the wordplay absolutely correctly, with the consequence that we had incorrect letters in two unchecked cells.

[jim360]

"Oh, those 30 extra ones Andrew? Yeah, they're for all your future wins, in advance. Save you the trouble, y'know?"

[AndrewG-S]

My future win rate will have to improve a little, or alteratively I will need to live to be 196 with all my faculties still working.

[JackDeCrow]

Seemed like the hardest clues for a while, and both clever and educational in the end, so a bit of a classic for me. Thanks Nutmeg. Just need to figure out the wordplay for 9d.

[JackDeCrow]

Ah, I see (of course, having just posted!). Not so happy with extra letters that work like that!

[sunny-dave]

Excellent - really enjoyable evening's workout - I liked that a lot

Tough clueing and gridfill until (like Jim360) I guessed the highlighted phrase and found a few more entry points.

Thanks Nutmeg

[EdgeofDarkness]

A little more difficult than recent puzzles, has taken me over 4 hours (no electronic assistance). I hope none of those complaining about techno peculiarities should ever require emergency help, or rescue from a remote place.

[jim360]

Yeah, struggling to complete a crossword and struggling to survive in the Amazon aren't exactly comparable...

[Anapice]

Spot on Jim. By the way do remote places have a strong signal:-)