I scanned my grid this morning but forgot to upload it to flickr, so I'll have to update this later.
Zero had one nifty puzzle in 2007 where the grid turned out to be a map of Italy, and I got absolutely nowhere with it. This one has an odd-shaped (but symmetric grid) and a very short preamble. Shading and affected cells - in the Italy one I think it was clashes?
On to the clues, I found the clues pretty tough - made even more tough by 24-27 across being omitted by my printer! It was obvious quickly that most answers were too long for the grid entry - the first two I saw were NEMESES for 13a, ON A PLATE (A PLAT in ONE) for 14a, ETUDE for 15a, CZAR for 17 and EXCERPT for 18, so it's likely to be dropping letters or multiple-letter clashes. Since I had three close together, I want to the downs, saw INEZ for 2 (INES and INEZ being on the brain since popping up in Yes by Lato), so something is fishy with that AR. 18 down is EXAM (AXE back with M) which works with my EX in EXCERPT, so maybe it's many letters crammed in the one spot.
Big penny drop moment was ON A PLATE... if it is two letters in each square, then I have ON, AP, LA, TE - and those fit with the downs LONER, NEAP, BLASTED and HAUTE. So a lot of checked spots have two letters, cool! In an hour or so I've got a grid filled more than half-way with a lot of double letter clusters in the middle, and none around the outside. I thought there was probably none at 1ac either, which left me with a problem for a while at 10ac, thinking that ET (from HETES) went there.
40 is unclued... and from assuming that there were no doubled-up cells in the bottom row I had -P-CE-N-ADERS... SPACE INVADERS! And shading in the doubly-filled squares, there's one of the little beasties!
This took me two sittings, so it's probably easy by Listener standards, the end was very fun though, making the grid so that the shape of the space invader fit checked cells and having the grid still have 180-degree symmetry when the space invader itself doesn't is a really nice touch. I had to browse through Chambers to get a few of the last clues (like SOKEN at 30D). This one is a victory for George, and back to a little breathing room. Nice puzzle, Zero, if you're looking in.
Current tally: George 18, Listener 14. Current streak: George 1.
This made me think of when New Zealand ruled new-wave music, so here's "Computer Games" by Mi-Sex
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