The next two weeks are going to be intriguing - Samuel was one of the first people to get in touch with me when I started this blog, and is in a large way responsible for my getting better at these things. Not to mention I managed to solve his offering from last year. Will familiarity breed contempt? We have 27 misprinted words and 10 words that need some sort of motion. That meant a little more than half of the clues needed some alteration. 5 and 19 are unclued but lead to some non-resolution and resolution... OK.
Since I didn't know what would be moved and what wouldn't, I started entering in words faintly - I prefer pen to pencil because when I write in pencil I tend to smudge, and I can always print off a new grid, so light penning it was (when it came to scan-time I went over a few I thought wouldn't show up too easily on the scanner).
Oh, and this finally came in the mail!
Couldn't make anything out of 1 across, but 7 looked like a good starter - (r)EGRET. 7 down looked like E,T,CHING (much later I changed it to E,T,CHANT once I figured out what went at 19). If 9 down is T,END with RAPT becoming TRAP I've found a moved letter and another normal entry.
I managed to fill out quite a lot of the grid in the first go-around. Maybe it was because I was looking for them right off the bat but a lot of the words that had motion stuck out in the clues, such as 10 across - small YARM branch has to be ARMY.
When I got as far as I could with the grid, I looked at 19 and 5. DOCTOR ZHIVAGO could fit ith the letters I had in 19 (I still had the I from ITCHING) - is everyone getting on a train? Are we moving Lana Turner?
I turned to the lettets from the misspellings... T T HERIGHT stuck out - something is going to the right. The L in 29 across made me think something else might be to the left.
That fit with a few that I couldn't work out... 41 across was N-G-E which I was drawing a blank on, but if it was GNOME with the NO moved it makes perfect sense. NOES TO THE LEFT. Now is it EYES to the right or AYES to the right? 32 looked like it should be E-LAYER from the clue, but I had E-R---E... so move the AYE to the right and it fits. 24 was already in my grid as SNOB with a question mark (because nothing would fir at 15 down), but move the NO to the left and make NOSB and 15 becomes MESS-UPS and 19 is TING.
Getting there - downs are all normal if motion is only to the left or the right. And 5 down is DIVISION LOBBY! 19 across is either THE AYES HAVE IT or THE NOES HAVE IT (I didn't have 3 down at this point).
I'll admit I abused Things Cruciverbial to get the last few AYES... Entering in 8-letter words using ILTAYE came up with VILAYETS at 11across, and 6-letter words with UXAYE at 38 BAYEUX (I probably should have gotten that without Things Cruciverbial).
Funny thing is that I eventually got that ANTES in 1 across had to be NATES (to give the CAN in CANOPY), but it was another case of entering NOPY + 2 letters to make the penny drop - this also gave me the A to confirm ABOUND at 3 down and the overall message to be THE NOES HAVE IT.
We are yet to have a word that makes its debut appearance in Chambers 2008, I wonder when one is to come? This was a really well put-together puzzle and I liked how the answer came in little bits, rather than one flash and away I go. Victory to George!
2009 tally: George 2, Listener 0. Current streak: George 2.
I'm excited about next week's Vic Chestnutt/Elf Power show and I was going to put a clip of Vic Chestnutt up on here. Checking youtube, would you believe someone took a handheld of a concert I was at last year and uploaded almost the entire thing to youtube. I was standing just a few feet to the left of this guy while he was recording, I think I tried to disrupt him a few times - here's Vic's rather bizarre warmup.
4 comments:
For me this was the perfect Listener crossword (and not just because I managed to do it!) The ingredients were:
a) Manageable clues (in the main)
b) Not having to solve all the clues to spot the theme (I found "left" and "right")
c) Then being able to solve the harder clues using the theme
d) Cleverly designed grid to match the theme
e) delightful double entendre in the rubric - I especially liked "on entering" referring to the division lobby.
Congratulations and thanks to the setter for this one - I was challenged and entertained.
You've summed it up very nicely there - this is a really fun puzzle for all of those reasons.
Well done george, I too completed this grid and found it serisously rewarding. I worked out the "Ayes to the left" etc first from the movements and plugged away from there.
Also thanks to Georges "permission" lol, I am claiming the first week's grid, so....
Apache4D 2, Listener 0
Sorry to be slightly off message, but is it only me who can't get this week's Listener from Times Online? I saw a message on the Listener site, but thought implied it was back on line. Mind you, an enforced week off is fine, and a no-show by them counts as a win!
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