Listener 4167: Lawbreaker by Stick Insect

[midazolam]

I have been staring at a complete grid for half an hour now and I must be missing the obvious. This was an extremely easy grid fill. I was expecting a tougher challenge with double clues and clashes. Time for a break, which may give me that elusive PDM

[Alan7777]

Very pleased this morning to see my name as one of the lucky winners of 4164.

Re this week's, I have a completed grid apart from one of the 12d answers and I have the 20 clashes. I now have the endgame to look at. Am I being very thick or don't the answers to 14a tell you which side is which?

[Speravi]

Congratulations to Alan7777 on your win - and if you're being thick, so am I: I agree that the solutions to 14a also solve the problem of which side is which.

[sunny-dave]

Phew - definitely a visit to the village of "Much Staring at the Grid" ...

... all sorted now though - much like tilbee, I didn't suddenly spot the answer (distinct shortage of the relevant knowledge here), but ground my way through deductive/intuitive/guessing processes to the relevant wiki page.

[Zabadak]

That's what I though too, but they don't. They merely decide which clues go where, they don't resolve what you do with the clashes. I would allow there is a bit of ambiguity here, but trust a grump - there's another issue to resolve that the fourteens don't do.

[Zabadak]

My last addressed to Alan and Speravi

[Ruthrobin]

I'm the one who fusses when too much is given away here but hope this is in order. Yes, obviously solving the two 14a clues tells you which of the ten by ten squares goes left and which goes right - but there will be a further 'need to decide' when you sort out the endgame.

[emcee]

Indeed there is Ruthrobin, and that's where I am at the moment. I'm wondering whether it's arbitrary as on some sites it's one representation and on others the reverse.

[emcee]

... and, as is often the case here, as soon as you post the final penny drops! Easy clues but nice endgame.

[TheBear69]

The end game was much tougher for me than some of you found it. I do not think staring at the grid would ever have worked for me. Thank goodness for TEA!

[jim360]

Just a few (5) cells left to fill. Seeing the pattern in the clashes was such a wonderful PDM. I normally hate listeners with clashes because it can take away my main method of attacking these things, but once I found what was going on it was easy enough to work through the clashing entries.

Yet to spot the theme, though, and complete the highlighting.

[Speravi]

Just for clarification Zabadak: what I said referred to the single issue of left/right. I don't think that either Alan7777 or I referred to the issue of what to do about the clashes.

[Vagans]

I'm with those who liked this one: soft on the outside, crunchy on the inside, though in fact the P dropped fairly quickly to my surprise. Congrats to Stick Insect on his second Listener. I remember enjoying the first as well.

[magichour]

I agree that this grid fill is much easier than many. Completed the grid yesterday but haven't yet worked out how to resolve the clashes, which seems like it must be key in determining the law that has been broken and therefore the potential lawbreaker. Tricky endgame...

[jim360]

Well, irony of ironies, I actually study (in part) this subject at university and still took ages to get it. Then again, I dislike this part of it so no wonder it took ages for me to find it.

Quite a clever construction.

[Alan7777]

Yes, a very clever construction. Although I was in the right area some time ago I have only just discovered the potential lawbreaker helped a little by my long ago education. Thanks Stick Insect for a tricky and satisfying finish.

[Vagans]

If anyone's interested there are threads for the CAM crossword now at http://www.theanswerb.../Question1084239.html
(online at http://www.alumni.cam...4_combined_LORES.pdf) and for the Oxford Today puzzle "Omniscience" by John Higgs at http://www.theanswerb.../Question1084429.html (not in the print edition but online at https://www.oxfordtod...k/page.aspx?pid=670).

[Staurologist]

I blew hot and cold over this one, for the reasons that everyone has given. A pity, for example, that the two sides could not have been distinguished by the relevant pair of theme words, rather than just one of them. Surprising that so many have not previously heard of this particular would-be lawbreaker. I was taught about him at school, and vividly remember a picture that showed him grinning delightedly, sitting at the top of the structure that the grid represents (including the excellent construction at the centre, which confirmed, if confirmation were necessary, the orientation of the 14s). It appears that C P Snow was, alas, correct.

[Rogue-Elfe]

Meh.
Full grid, kinda understand what the clashes mean, no further help.
I even read Staurologist's recent entry twice, certain there's more than a peripheral bit of cryptic assistance in it - no luck.
Still, I'm not sending it in - I'll start that in January when the statistics reset, so not too bothered. I'll await the answer anon.

[trux]

R-E : I would persevere (and if you re-re-read Staurologist's comments, he's kinda given the game away in more ways than one) ... it's the most satisfying bit of the puzzle and a rather elegant construction.

[perseverer]

Staurologist - while the law itself deserves be widely known (expressed in one of its various versions,) you could well argue that the potential lawbreaker, given his chances of success, hardly merits much recognition, other than as an amusing sidelight.