Listener 4175 : The Winning Line by Ozzie

[trux]

Zany clues, almost laugh-a-minute stuff and a remarkable (and surprising) dénouement. Brought much needed mental warmth to the icy surroundings here. Terrific stuff, great fun and the best of 2012 so far by a country mile. Many, many thanks to Ozzie...

[Walterloo]

All done. As already mentioned some super clues. Some took me much longer to get than was necessary. Two of which still elude me in terms of wordplay.

A really good puzzle.

[aldanna]

Very clever clues and filling the grid was great fun. That much we completed last night - couldn't start Friday as it didn't seem to be available, obviously the only reason not in the Friday club. 'Just' the mysterious endgame to do now, always the hardest part for me.

[Mesnilpat]

Greetings from the slow lane. I didn't get the paper until late Saturday but am enjoying the grid so far. One look at the premble was nearly enough to make me give up before starting, but the clues are not as dense as might appear. I agree that some are very good indeed.

[Cruncher]

Greetings from the snow lane. Lovely piece of work so far. Still have a little calculating left to do

[tramart]

I've rarely laughed out loud at a crossword clue, several in this case.
Great fun, which is surely what a crossword should always be.
Rather too many hard slogs last year, but have enjoyed all of this year's.

[vetuste_ennemi]

I thought I'd solved this, but all this talk of calculators and spreadsheets has got me worried. Is anything more complicated than the instruction needed?

[AndrewG-S]

Yes entertaining clues and finish and I agree best of the year to date! I assume there is another thread out there somewhere that I cannot find, or is everyone out playing in the snow?

[AndrewG-S]

Sorry ignore my last comment, I was thrown by the advertising on ways to avoid running out of money in retirement, which bumped the answers down the page.

[perseverer]

vetuste_ennemi - Don't panic - spreadsheet stuff was all about reducing chances of transcription errors when substituting numbers for letters

[vetuste_ennemi]

Thanks, Perseverer.

[Mesnilpat]

I was beginning to think I was missing something as, good as the clues are, I was not finding them amusing - until now. Previous posts are spot on. The clues are clever and almost laugh out loud in places.

[floaker]

A beaut of a puzzle. Good to see that it has been greeted with thoroughly deserved unanimous approval.

[Walterloo]

This is certainly a brilliantly constructed puzzle in regards to grid and clues as I've already mentioned but for me it narrowly misses out being a true classic because of what the 'mostly incorrect' part of the preamble refers to. But that might just be me.

[Philoctetes]

Too much cold-solving. Had Ozzie read the weather forecast?

[Cruncher]

And can I add a plug for the Magpie too. For those of you who now feel nicely warmed up after the first stiffish puzzle of the year I would heartily recommend the Magpie as an excellent to maintain peak fitness. Reaches the parts of the cerebral cortex that many other puzzles don't!

[IainGrace]

Agree with comments. A very enjoyable challenge so far. Almost completed grid. Not sure we understand the wordplay for Rank 7 second clue nor for File 12 first nor File 13. Re File 3 second, the sequence of dots performs the usual crossword function.

[iamamoose]

Can I put a word in for first of file 12? It took me a ridiculously long time from seeing the answer to grasping the wordplay ...but there were so many good clues in this one!!

[Walterloo]

I'd like to also recommend the Magpie. For me, solving an E grade is more rewarding than a lot of things I've achieved in my non-crossword activities! I recently won an E grade prize puzzle and the puzzle in question was a masterpiece. There have been MANY puzzles of all grades recently that would have been discussed to death and greatly appreciated by regular posters on this site if they'd appeared in The Times.

[Rogue-Elfe]

I'm there!
Stavrolex, if you're still attending this thread, look at how the wordplay for 3 (part 2) ends...
I have to admit I can't see where the letter in rank 8 (square (7,8)) comes from in the wordplay, though I can get the rest of it; especially as it is confirmed by the 7th file.
Does anyone else think we need to add 6 bar lines to make the whole thing more aesthetic, or not?
Although I didn't laugh at the solutions, I did appreciate the rather cunning &lit clues, many of which seem to be the source of the humour.
Thanks, Ozzie, for a good challenge.

PS - Magpie! Magpie! EVERYONE join the magpie...
...or else there may BE no magpie!!!

[Rogue-Elfe]

PPS - Iaingrace - the same is true for the beginning of rank 13 as for the end of rank 3 (pt 2).
File 12 (pt 1) is a highly unusual wordplay trick but obtainable fully from the command words.
As for the rank 7 one, the last word (I have to presume) is taken to mean something other than it's usual meaning.