Listener No 4229 Cleopatra's Needled By Ruslan

[Ruthrobin]

Surely not! Me starting a thread on a NUMERICAL.

What fun to have a numerical with an endgame. Of course, we can't thank Ruslan but this was nowhere near as tedious and horrible as numericals usually are (at least for some of us!)

[starwalker]

I might have beaten you to it, but I've got a couple of rubbish answers. Clearly, there is not a misprint in the puzzle, so it's back to the beginning. I was enjoying it earlier on, but now I will reserve judgement and open a bottle.

[AndrewG-S]

Very enjoyable but sad to see a posthumous puzzle. Thanks Ruslan hope you are watching from somewhere.

[JackDeCrow]

Is there not a misprint in the instructions re 19ac?

[TheBear69]

No misprint that I can see.

[fallster]

This was pretty easy, and pleasant with a mildly fun ending. Those who usually skip numericals might want to try this one.

[Ruthrobin]

We found no misprint in 19ac - are you reading the preamble carefully?

[trux]

Indeed ... most approachable even for a numerophobe like myself. Very gentle and fun-to-work-out clues, and a extremely neatly constructed final grid. Have done over two weeks off the booze and have got to watch Mastermind after finishing the Big L three times now! Assuming the ethernet stretches that far, many thanks must wing their way up to Ruslan.

[crosswhit99]

Certainly not taxing, but surely most Listener numericals have an endgame ?

[Alekhine]

Reading the preamble was more of a challenge than the puzzle.

[dr b]

Definitely one on the lighter side, especially after I got the hang of doing the math with the clue answers and not the grid entries. D'oh. An amazing construction as always. The "sum of all the new grid's entries" was quite remarkable.

[emcee]

Lovely puzzle but what a shame about Ruslan. It would be interesting, and appropriate, if the Listener site gave an obituary for late setters to provide an insight into their lives.

[jockie]

I must be missing something - I've got all the clue answers, and all the grid entries, and made the substitution and added everything up - so far so good (and all the hints made sense, validating the process). But I'm stuck on the "also features in six other cells" part. A good night's sleep might help.

[JackDeCrow]

Haven't had any more time this evening, but at the time of writing I had a single solution for the 19ac clues where it was the grid entry that was divisible by the last two digits of the answers, but no solution as yet where the "sum" met that criteria as well as the others. If it's there, will hopefully find it tomorrow!

[borealis]

Great! A numerical that responds to logic and doesn't need a spreadsheet - or even much use of a calculator....and I would hope therefore accessible to many who are either new to the Listener or rarely attempt these. I would reccommend this if you are in either group.
I think 19a was solveable without some of the information given. Anyone else find this?

Oh - and my first Friday post here for some time!

[Postigod]

First ever Friday club and a very entertaining romp. Hugely impressive construction.

[olichant]

Having being terrified (ish) of the first numerical of the year - this was just a delight. I can finally see what the fuss is about! Ruthrobin, thank you again for your Magpie recommendation - it was a great help.

[123-and-ABC]

I have an grid entry for 17Ac, but the answer I have is wrong: 1 digit. I have read, re-read many times and I cannot see where I have misunderstood. Well there you go...

[dylan123]

Borealis - I agree re 19ac - the information about permutations didn't distinguish between two possible solutions.

I've done the replacement, added up all the grid entries, and got a number 9 greater than what might be expected. Anyone else made same mistake?

[magichour]

I enjoyed this - thought it was going to be much tougher than it appeared from the preamble. Sad about Ruslan's passing.

Dylan123, I initially made the same mistake as you, and realised I'd made a mistake on one answer I had wrongly thought to be ambiguous. I suggest you recheck each entry carefully. As far as I could tell there was only one answer to 19ac that satisfied all the criteria.

[fortyseven]

An unusual set of clues and a cleverly constructed grid. But for me both this month's Magpie numerical and this week's Listener have been one-evening puzzles - an almost unprecidented event. Thinking ahead to numericals in the rest of this year the words "lull" and "storm" come to mind.