Listener 4130 Rattle by Augeus

[Ruthrobin]

I see that trux and Starwalker have posted already, elsewhere. As I did, they quickly found the quotation and are now working hard.

[Clamzy]

I'm in imminent danger of joining the Friday club so I'm putting this aside until tomorrow.
Is this another debut perhaps?

[dr b]

Pretty much in the same boat. End game looks not-too-interesting.

[cluelessJoe]

Me too - put mine aside at 17:15 after an uninspiring 45 minutes. Sorry Augeus, limp extra words gimmick - no wonder some editors refuse to accept these - making the quotation a breeze to spot. The rest started as a slog and will no doubt continue to be when I can be bothered to come back to it. Sorry, just not my kind of puzzle.

[bobbycollins]

could a friend please let me know the end game - I can't be bothered

[TheBear69]

Finished and am pretty confident it is all right, but how Augeus or the editors can be 100% certain the solution is unique is beyond me. I thought the instruction about how to resolve ambiguity was particularly lame...

[Ruthrobin]

Dare I comment that people are being rather harsh on a newcomer when they haven't challenged themselves with a clever endgame.

[AHearer]

Agree with most of the comments, but quite glad of an easy one. My mind is not in the best of shape after my one-hour commute turned into four hours last night, and I've spent the week dealing with students whose projects were due in at the end of today and were ......

[dr b]

I got to the finish line; clever construction, some excellent clues, as always, but I can't say the endgame provided much of a thrill - too much of a scavenger hunt for my tastes.

[EagleCountry]

Finished, but don't understand the title.

[AHearer]

It's a Chaucerian reference, matching the unclued entries.

[cluelessJoe]

Ruthrobin, it's kind of you to defend the puzzle, but I don't think that debutant(e) status is an excuse for a fairly lame effort - in comparison, cast your mind back to Spud last year. Some of the attempts I have test solved for people would be much more deserving of publication as Listener debuts - but like I said, this was maybe just not my kind of puzzle.

[AndrewG-S]

I may be a bit contrarian in that I quite enjoyed the endgame, which I thought was the best part. Needed some thought and logic to work through.

[starwalker]

cJ - yes, I agree. The setter may set, but in the end, it's the editors / vetters who have the final say. But personal opinion also colours judgement sometimes.
AHearer - thanks for the title explanation. I had missed that, because when I was at school we had to read Chaucer in the original form.

[Zabadak]

Apart from a few tired minutes last night (it was my birthday) I did this today in about an hour and a half, so not particularly demanding. Most of the time was spent looking up lists - I never knew there were so many!- and dealing with a dodgy internet connection.
I agree with others that mine may not be a unique solution, though it meets the criteria and all my entries are in Chambers. There is no independent way of checking.
Not too much of a cavil, though - this was a decent enough workout and (I thought) quite a satisfying challenge on the end game. If only there weren't so many possibilities to chose from...

[contendo]

I can see how 4 & 31ac can be made to fit the continuation of the quotation but the other 10 unclued entries elude me. Am I just not looking hard enough?

[bobbycollins]

Thanks to dr b for pointing out what should have been fairly obvious.

Sorry about the negativity, I was held up in work last night and in a bad mood when I posted, waiting for Mrs bobbycollins to collect me.

[dr b]

contendo, I don't see any path to the end, other than finding a comprehensive list and plugging away at the possibilities. Just be sure you are considering the entirety of the quote and not only the bit immediately after the 6 words.

[aldanna]

Can't even start yet as the printer is throwing a wobbly. Still, it doesn't seem that it is going to be excessively difficult. although the enthusiasm for this puzzle seems less than overwhelming.

[silversolver]

Rattled through the clued entries in record time but then, like others, found the endgame somewhat tortuous. All done now so can concentrate on the cricket - not looking good for England right now...

[trux]

Surely this could have been improved by limiting the field with a more specific comment in the pre-ramble such as "the 12 unclued entries all of which are confirmed in Chambers (1992)" (or a more recent version for the rest of you) ? As for positives, the unclueds form a very pretty symmetrical pattern, and I presume that the quotation is the base origin of a more familiar phrase ? Btw, does everybody agree with the sentiment expressed by the quotation ? Could be an interesting diversion on AB as I suspect we don't have a lot more to say about the puzzle itself ... ?