Listener 4418: Out Of Line By Sabre

[upsetter]

After two days we have solved 10 clues and managed to enter one letter, although even that might be wrong.
Is anyone else doing any better?

[perseverer]

I wouldn't go as far as saying I was ranting, but it does seem to me that having set 60 odd Listeners, Sabre gets a latitude in clueing that other setters might not. Sometimes you use the wordplay/subsidiary indication (or whatever term you favour) to work out an answer which is confirmed by the definition. Other times you get the answer from the definition, and can confirm it by a little thought about the wordplay. In this puzzle there seemed to be too many answers where figuring out the wordplay from the definition required too much of a leap.

[starwalker]

I think that the issue of longer established setters being allowed a freer rein than more recent ones, has been mentioned here previously. Hopefully the editors monitor this site and will take notice.

[Postigod]

Came back to this today having finished 4419 and have belatedly limped over the line. Some wonderful clues, if Herculean levels of difficulty in places. There are still a handful I haven't adequately parsed, but maybe inspiration will come now I don't have to think about them. Overall, a real tour-de-force.