Listener 4187: Prize and Prize-winner by Dysart

[midazolam]

The lack of numbers in the grid didnt hold this puzzle up for long and now having obtained a full grid, the author, birthplace, the removed five letter collection and one of the three novels highlighted, it is now a case of hunting. I do like a hunt...

[tenflags]

Add me to those with albumen face pack. Entertaining and educational.

I once received feedback from the judges on a clue writing contest concerning 'that' part of the parsing to 45a (to which I am sure Sunnydave refers), that I had used in the same way, and was told it was not considered good form ?!.

[dead-eye]

Took me a great deal of time staring at the grid,only to realise that I had read one of his novels last week!

[jockie]

A splendid puzzle from Dysart, complete with red herring (and another biological trap). Found all the required highlightery bits and the erase bit, but am at a loss about how to interpret the "one number only" part. I can think of two distinct perfectly logical numbers to put in, but am probably missing the - undoubtedly correct - third. Ugh!

[emcee]

All done and I will readily admit I've never even heard of the author let alone any of the works.

My only niggle is 45a, can't for the life of me see how the solution is obtained from the subsidiary indication.

[contendo]

Life kept intervening this week-end so I've only had intermittent goes at this. Very entertaining and it took some time to get rid of the egg. I'm almost there but am still looking for the two-word novel. Glad we didn't have to look for anything in the original language.

[Charpy]

emcee: Try looking up the last letter of your answer for 45a in Chambers.

[magichour]

I, too, am almost there. The yolk was on me too. Only the three word title to find and I have a couple of dubious possibilities for it - hoping it is something completely unambigous as a case could be made for other options. Still haven't determined which clue number needs to be entered, either, but hoping for inspiration to strike today.

[tilbee]

Out for the day yesterday (dead animals at the Tate Modern, some dancing animals at ROH) so had to tackle this on the train without BRB or Internet access. Was pleased, with a bit of logical guesswork, to get a completed grid and the author. Now back to BRB to see how many errors I made, and to Google to hunt for the titles.

[IainGrace]

Lovely teaser. Finished save for the clue number. Intrigued that only one other ABer thus far appears to have found that to be the sticking point.

Incidentally, should the prize these days not be something other than the BRB, which the vast majority of solvers must surely have in paper and/or app form already?

[tilbee]

All done - but have to confess that the end game was made much easier by a couple of the comments on this thread. Certainly stopped me going down a blind alley.

[magichour]

Hoping I have successfully entered the three word title and the one clue number that is supposed to be present. Can be logically justified, but slightly concerned that the cryptic representation isn't quite as explicit as the others. Still, can't find any realistic alternative. Overall this was a very good puzzle with nice thematic material.

[emcee]

Aha! Thanks, Charpy, I see it now.

[easylistener]

I'm in the egg on the face club too!

[dr b]

I think including the birthplace in the grid made it fairly easy to avoid the "eggy" part. The hunt for the novels was the hardest part, mostly because as is well known I hate word searches (this fact would be on my Wikipedia page if I had one). All in all a good proper Listener.

[Coalminers]

There is only one thing in the world worse than getting egg on your face, and that is not getting egg on your face when everyone else seems to have egg on theirs. However, my mind is now at rest since I have discovered where the blind alley was, and am pleased I didn't take it.

[teuchter2]

Late in posting this week, but had grid done on Friday and the rest followed fairly swiftly yesterday. The last PDM for me was the number, but it is obvious once you get it. I thoroughly enjoyed this one and learnt a lot.

[the_heisman]

Excellent crossword marred only by some of the comments on this thread which are far too specific. It's not fair to the setter or other solvers as the PDM is great but rather less so if blurted out.

[borealis]

Easy start, got harder, lots of end stuff - very nice. Thanks, Dysart.

And reading through the comments here, my egg lasted.....well, longer than my chocolate one did a few weeks ago!

[qwerty99]

As dr b says, a good, proper Listener; I really enjoyed this. And I agree with the_heisman; it really isn't that difficult to comment on a puzzle without giving the game away... Too many overt hints already!

[Alan7777]

I think I've finished. I certainly didn't find the grid fill easy and a couple of entries were revealed only in the endgame. I'm fairly confident with the number that has to be entered but if others are unsure perhaps I've got this wrong.

On the subject of whether too much is given away in these threads I think generally not and let's hope it stays that way. I always read the posts and often find that they confuse rather than help.