Listener Crossword 4117 Great Expectations by Samuel

[Zabadak]

Not finished yet, but I've got grid B, so I know two things already. There's an awful lot of pretty close to cold solving in Grid A, and I've got to get a bigger print out to have any kind of chance with the instruction. Best of luck, everyone.

[trux]

Btw, did anybody else find an alternative answer to A-8D ? I did (using "R" for "King" rather than "K" I came up with SAGO - and, yes, SARGO is a type of fish). This held me up for a while ... and left me two numbers short (but the message would still have worked - and I hadn't yet cracked A-21D so didn't know where the symmetry should be, at that time). (I'm pretty sure) I have now resolved this - although looks quite an Asian spelling to me and is not in my 1990 BRB as such (nor is the more common spelling either, curiously) ... And, nor was the meaning of B-6D ... Perhaps now I know what I should ask for this Christmas ?

[7lattens]

Grid B completed, with the exception of 3d - is this in Chambers ?

[Zabadak]

7lattens: yup!

[AndrewG-S]

All sorted, apart from actually finishing it if you see what I mean. trux yes, held me up for quite a while.

[silversolver]

Enjoyed this one - like others, completed Grid B without too much difficulty but Grid A was quite a challenge. Merry Christmas to all fellow Listener addicts...

[starwalker]

Whilst there is no puzzle next week, I believe that from precedent there is one the week after, (since The Times is published), which is therefore the first puzzle of the New Year and new Listener stats.
Merry Christmas to one and all.

[midazolam]

Having had an eventful day trying to get to work in the snow (I am eternity grateful the person who towed me up the hill) I am glad we have had an enjoyable close to this years listeners.

A very clever idea and well constructed. I agree with the comments re: grid A tough in places, but knowing the theme once B was completed helped. The only downside is the adjacent thematic cells in the top and bottom of grid A, but that is being too picky as I can imagine it was tough to work out all those subtractions.

Thanks Samuel and and merry xmas to you and all the listener clan.

[aldanna]

I hope you're right Starwalker (seems logical) as I am going into hospital the first week of 2011 and was relying on having the Listener to while away some of the post-operation tedium.
All done apart from the end game, which is my weakest part always.
(I was fooled by the 'sago' as well)

[contendo]

Whew! Got there in the end, though am still in doubt about which alternative spelling for 14dn. I presume it's the one later in the alphabet, but don't really understand the wordplay. The definition for 24ac in Grid B seems a bit eccentric. Also I don't fully understand the wordplay in 25ac Grid B or 10ac Grid A. An enjoyable crossword though and certainly different. I'm glad I don't have the Master's task of checking the answers.

[tilbee]

Contendo - wordplay for B-25ac makes sense if you use a more unusual definition for one of the common words in the clue. I was also not clear on the wordplay to A-10ac.

A very enjoyable puzzle this week, though unlike most I started on Grid A and completed this before moving onto Grid B. Fortunately the final messge is easily decipherable without having to go to the trouble of fully following the instruction from Grid B, for those like me who do not submit.

[Antmark]

First one completed for ages without the customary nudges from RR. However my chubby little fingers struggled on the penultimate stage.

[Wideernie]

Can anyone help by giving me 1d or a hint to 1d as i'm having a hell of a time with grid A. Grid B complete!

[email protected]

I don't submit so don't worry

[AndrewG-S]

With much amusement from the family I managed to finish this on the small grid. It reminded me a little of Airfix models in my youth.

[cluelessJoe]

Which 'little' was that Andrew - the bit where you got nearly to the end and found that the dog had eaten the nose-wheel you had dropped on the floor, the bit where you realised you had left the transfers in to soak for too long, so they came out all creased, or the bit where you snipped the neck off your sachet of polystyrene cement over-enthusiastically and ended up with gluey fingerprints all over the model, and not quite enough left in the pouch to attach your last aileron..

[AHearer]

I remember being told that the real enthusiasts stuck them together with nail polish remover applied with a brush. I "borrowed" my mother's, had a slight accident, and ended up with an attractively frosted cockpit canopy. On reflection, that didn't look much worse than the usual fingerprints.

[Ruthrobin]

My memory is of launching them on their maiden flight, with that little engine which invariably set fire to the whole fragile contraption, but rarely managed to completely burn up the very inflammable structure until after it had crashed in a mangled heap of struts in the middle of the flowerbed.

[AndrewG-S]

The little I had in mind was actually making an incisive cut to release one of the key small pieces of the model to realise at the exact moment that the plastic gave way with that pleasing thud that I had just cut through the middle of the piece rather than the join, making the model useless.

[Scorpius]

I found this pretty easy, I'm pleased to say since I don't have much spare time on my hands. Unlike many I found the clues to Grid A a lot easier than those to Grid B. I didn't fully understand 10a (Grid A) and 23d (Grid B), though I have no doubt about the answers. I'm slightly dubious about the definition to 19a (Grid A). I wonder if it's too specific; it sounds somewhat unlikely to me, though perhaps a trawl through a lengthy text will prove me wrong.

There seems to be a problem with the final result to submit. The instruction, "without detachment" makes it impossible to read the message unless the grids are submitted in a box.

[contendo]

Scorpius - I think "without detachment" means hinged rather than cut right out.

[Clamzy]

Yes I think so too but am wondering why the "out" was used. There is also the question of exactly what to highlight - numbers or underlying letters or both??
Like 4112 the "penny drop" puzzle of a few week's ago, there's room for controversy here:-)