Listener 4146 What it Says by Waterloo

[dr b]

A pretty straightforward solve this week, as 6 or 8 cold solves revealed the likely method of entry. But, a well constructed puzzle, and a nice break after last week's brainbuster.

Thank you Waterloo, and now I can't get that damn Abba song out of my head.

[TheBear69]

I'm with you, AHearer; too much information...

[Cruncher]

Actually I thought 61a was the only clue worth getting out of bed for. Nice touch

[Cruncher]

Hey - theBear69 - this forum ain't big enough for two big bears.....

[AndrewG-S]

In relation to hidden messages I found the letters forming Basic Listener there in contiguous cells.

[u10]

Waterloo certainly has staying power - his first Listener was Number 1742 on 17th October 1963.

[dr b]

Andrew, upon closer inspection I also found "I buried Paul" and "42". The plot thickens....

[Clamzy]

Starting at cell 2, in knights moves, we have Archery.

Who killed Cock Robin?

[Paula]

I enjoyed this - not too difficult but different.

[AndrewG-S]

If I google all the thematic elements we have discovered, straight away I find that they are all linked to The Archers, I feel this must be the true theme here - does episode 42 have some special relevance?

[Philoctetes]

This benefited from my usual approach of doing the Listener in short bursts. I felt it was like one of those infuriating list of 100 "73 Fs on a Ds C" sort of thing - fun in short bursts, but tiresome very quickly. So short bursts worked. Shame there wasn't an overall payoff.
By coincidence, I am an archer, and I was once 42! Spooky.

[perseverer]

To my mind this was a good idea, but one which could have been taken further - with clue answers like rafters, thunders, piggyback, eventide or, appropriate to the online publication date, St Swithin. Actually did we have to enter what it said?

[IainGrace]

AHearer, not yearning for highlighter pens so much as the satisfaction of a steady ascent to the summit - with PDMs on the way - rather than, as here, finding oneself at the summit with nothing to look forward to but the dull plod down. Re 61 etc we gave this double treatment, as it were, but see no way of determining unequivocally that this what is required.

[IainGrace]

......on the other hand, in the previous week the mountain was so shrouded in mist that we couldn't even see where to start the ascent!

[Clamzy]

No contribution from AHearer last week which is most unusual. On Holiday? In NewZealand perhaps?

[silversolver]

Away for the weekend so only started this one last night. I agree that once the entry method was deduced (pretty early on) this became something of a slog. However, there were some clues which made me smile.

[billvokes]

Just posted this in the 4145 thread but realised that no-one will read it!

I've been working solidly on this [4145] for 10 days! Solved 34 of 39 clues (87%) but still can't enter a single answer with confidence, which doesn't seem right somehow. I've got the thematic creator and I know the occasion so I can guess at the creations. But I can't see any symmetry in the clue answer lengths. I guess that 2 long answers which are next to each other lie in rows 5&6 of the bottom 2/3 although I can't see why there would be 7 possibilities (either 3 with pure symmetry or 9 without). I would really appreciate a nudge here from some kind soul!

My answer lengths are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
4 ? 4 3 4 3 11 ? 9 10 7 ? 9 9 6 7 10 9 4 ? 9 ?

23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
5 10? 4 13 13 ? ? 6 10 6 4 10 4 8 6 6 6 6 3 4 4

[these lined up in the submit box but have now gone awry. Sorry.]

Many thanks

Bill

[email protected]

[perseverer]

Bill - someone read it! Check your email.

[contendo]

Having failed to finish last week's and getting off to a late start this week I struggled to get to the initial PDM, after which all went smoothly. All credit to Waterloo for devising a grid in which every word conforms to the theme, and some of the clue construction was brilliant with cleverly disguised definitions. 61a etc works for me with the judicious mental insertion of a /. I'm puzzled by the references here to archers and 42. I must be missing something. And the knight's move doesn't work for me.

[dr b]

contendo, people are just spoofing the lack of any apparent endgame; I can't tell from your post if you are spoofing the spoofing or not... must get irony detector checked...

[Clamzy]

Contendo - Start at cell 2 then down 2 and left followed by right 2 and down five times = archery. Simples:-)