Year 2 recap

A second year of documenting my attempts to solve the Listener Crossword has come and gone. And what a year it's been.

I went 33-19. An improvement on last year, I was kind of hoping for better (especially after a great start), but an improvement is an improvement is an improvement. I doubt I'm ever going to be one of those all-correctors, but I drew far fewer blanks (I think I had 4 close to blank grids).

Thanks to all the readers and the commenters, both on the blog and over email. And especially to the setters who take a moment to drop a line, send me extra puzzles and laugh over some of my sillier slips. I've been working on some puzzle ideas, and may get a little revenge in the next year.

Oh, and as for the commenters who want to sell viagara, and lead us into virus sites... I can't find a way to get rid of you on blogger, so I'm most likely up and moving George v the Listener to another host soon (I have a wordpress account, that's looking pretty likely).

This year also saw Listen With Others rise to a new level. Many more reports, and several grids from people with much better handwriting than I. I wonder if it's because of the competition from upstart less competent blogs? You can now waste a rather large part of Friday afternoon reading through a bunch of first-hand solving or non-solving attempts and extra setters comments.

To continue with a tradition of mediocrity, last year I picked my top 3 Listeners that I solved, and the three most impressive I didn't solve. None of these won the Ascot Gold Cup, ummm, so maybe this is a consolation prize or an indication I know nothing (though I did enjoy Conflict Resolution). So here (and I'm sorry if I've just killed your AGC aspirations) are my tops for 2009.

My favorite puzzles that I solved...

4018: In Clue Order, On and On by Loda. How did Loda manage to get so many steps crammed into this? And a great ending. Nearly fell on the floor when the instruction emerged to read the last letter of each across clue.

4037: S by Hedge-Sparrow. Another great ending with the changing of APE into MAN along the centre squares. Even though (as Duncan pointed out in commments) RANI made an appearance, there was a bunch of thematic stuff that hooked me in and the theme got me to the end.

4025: The Brewer's Ingrdients by Gnomon. The merging of beer and Jewish themes tickled me a lot.

4038: Playtime by Samuel. I was taken by the pachinko-looking grid straight away and was really impressed by those final manipulations to reveal the thematic parts. I had to be very careful writing this one out, which was difficult as I solved most of it on a pub crawl.

4059: Child's Play by Dysart. I don't know if this will get universal phrase, but the idea was so simple and so fun, turn a crossword into a game of snakes and ladders! Even though I saw the theme straight away, I knew it was going to be a blast. Leaving out a bunch of squares made the solving challenge enough to overcome the ease of spotting the theme.

My top 3 I wish I'd solved.

4061: 50-50 by Phi. The solution looked so amazing, and the grid was a beast to put together.

4052: Question by Aedites. I should have finished this. And after reading the solution (and a helpful email by Aedites), I think I can get over the bell-changing hurdle.

4048: Rules of Construction by Poat. Almost got there, but that word square in the middle is one hell of a piece of work!

And a final hat tip to 4036: Base Jog by Brimstone. I don't know if it will get much love from the powers that be, being about baseball, but that was a masterpiece of thematic grid, clues (those clues made me laugh out loud) and finale. It would have been perfect if it came out before Henry Aaron's record was broken.

And so we look on to year three? Five questions for Year 3 of George v Listener

1) Will I finally solve a Phi Listener?

2) Keep the fingers crossed - is the Playfair square gone forever? We didn't have one in 2009

3) Will it be proven that Dipper and Hedge-Sparrow are the same person and my life be ruined?

4) Will you read "Dr. George Heard, Asheville North Carolina" in the winners column? Becuase this year, I'm going to submit some!

5) Will there be a Listener themed around The Mighty Boosh, Grand Theft Auto, Blackadder, Tom Holt's J.W. Wells & Co. novels, linux operating systems, or any of the following celebrating their 200th anniversary: Oktoberfest, Chopin, P.T. Barnum?