Listener 4321 - Solitaire Ii By Xanthippe

[Cruncher]

Looks like my all-correct run is at an end...

[Pasquin]

Oops, links got lost.

Another "final crossword" by Araucaria in the Guardian today at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26427

***Spoiler*** article at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/crossword-blog/2014/nov/25/unexpected-treat-fans-araucaria-guardian-crossword-setter

[geoff1955]

Grid completed and double checked, but my 9 letter word now begins with "BEC" or "COI" or CIO" and I can't find a word that fits. Have I gone wrong or am I being stupid??

[Cloverjo]

Geoff. I put all the remaining letters etc. into an anagram solver and got a 9 letter word beginning with BEC.

[geoff1955]

Thanks Cloverjo, I had originally found a nine letter word but rejected it as I couldn't see why it was remotely thematic. But I have persevered with it and come up with three words, but still fail to see the theme. I do numbers better than words, and I am really not on the right wavelength! Any further hints

[Cloverjo]

I was given the following hint on another forum.
Look up the word Solitaire in Chambers for a slightly more obscure definition.

[borealis]

For those of you trying the CAM 73 Schadenfreude referred to by olichant/Cruciverbalist, it's good, and not nearly as hard as the last one. There's also a nice link with Solitaire II!

[twoshortplan]

Lovely puzzle. Done it from the beginning twice and ended up with the same final grid after removing 0-F. But having difficulty with the 9 letter word - only entry I can find in BRB needs two 'A's and I've only got one. Am I mistaken or is it not in the BRB?

[twoshortplan]

captain coma, 10dn being a multiple of 10H only means that it ends in 0 and could be any value from 100H to FF0H. if the second digit is odd then 12ac is odd too.

[Cloverjo]

Twoshortplan, the word is in the BRB.

[twoshortplan]

Thanks cloverjo,
The only word I can find starting BEC has two 'A's, I don't have two 'A's in my final grid. So I guess I've gone wrong somewhere.

[twoshortplan]

Found it! Must be blind.

[Cruncher]

Bringing up the rear. Early flirtation with HexCalc abandoned as it's calculations were faulty but finally filled grid and emptied it again. Not convinced by the words I've got. Hmm

[BMACMAC]

Those struggling with hexadecimal may also like to know that the Microsoft calculator has a hex facility. Click on "View" and select "Programmer". In this mode, you can choose between Hex Dec Octal and binary, and the current display switches accordingly. When in Hex the A-F keys are enabled. There's also a Mod key (modulo) which is quite useful: by typing (for example) AF0 Mod 7 =, you get a result of 0, which tells you that AF0 is a multiple of 7.