Listener 4213 A Spirited Performance by Kruger

[midazolam]

I am not sure of the necessity here to clue this with a semi carte blanche/jigsaw style. It seems to be included only to make the puzzle harder. However the clues were very easy given the alpahbetical stance and I solved all but three before starting on the grid fill. I see no necessity for it here and would have preferred a harder set of clues and a normal grid. Extra words do not fill me with satisfaction either, however I did enjoy reading about the theme. Not one of the best this year, but a nice distraction for a gloomy, cold Friday evening.

[starwalker]

Yes, I was surprised at the relative simplicity of the clues, given the preamble. Currently at the assembly stage and waiting to make the final connections, when hopefully all will be revealed.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, I am assembling too and waiting for the pdm about the theme, as the one that came early on doesn't seem to be explaining a number of extra words that are appearing.

[starwalker]

Not come across the theme before. This does seem to echo a comment made elsewhere that the editors appear to be assuming all solvers will have internet access, rather than a collection of standard reference books.

[dr b]

Not nearly as tough as the preamble made it seem, although rearranging the 1st and 4th letters to find the messages was quite tedious. All in all a proper Listener.

[trux]

All done, just before the appropriate hour. Found this to be a bit of a slog, but liked the endgame. Most impressive word length in grid (6.00) which helps in carte blanches. Can see why this & alphabetical order used, in order better to disguise what is going on, and fair enough in my view even if it meant that everything came all of a rush at the end rather than any build-up along the way. Not sure everybody's local library would stock suitable source material! Many thanks, Kruger - kept me well busy tonight!

[Ruthrobin]

All done and I echo those comments. The Geneva librarian would just laugh if I went looking for this one. However, we do all use the Internet don't we? This, with all that cold solving, was not one for newcomers but it did fill a cold Friday evening.

[tilbee]

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Agree the clueing was on the easier side, but the fact it was carte blanche and obscure theme certainly kept me occupied for some hours today.

[olichant]

Is it acceptable to insert clue "numbers" in the grid (in an attempt to retain sanity!)

[Alekhine]

This was quite enjoyable, although the amount of cold-solving took the edge off things a little.

Nice endgame ... something I hadn't come across before.

[jim360]

About a third of the clues cold-solved so far, but no idea what the theme will be or how things fit into the grid. Annoyingly I have only one of the 4 nine-letter words that might act as a good entry point. A long way to go but hopefully I'll get there eventually.

[Texasetes]

Cold-solving isn't my cup of tea, and I'd have suffered less if I'd started trying to fill the grid sooner. Luckily, I solved the longer clues fairly early on, and once I took the bull by the horns it wasn't as bad as I'd feared.

The number of solvers with prior knowledge of the theme would surely be quite small - even Philoctetes didn't predict it.

[emcee]

Interesting and quite an obscure theme. It is possible, though, to complete this puzzle without any knowledge of it at all - the Internet comes in useful to verify all is well.

Thanks Kruger for an entertaining puzzle.

[IainGrace]

Off on hols in a day or so, so probably little time to devote to this, given its apparent complexity, although comments re easy clues are maybe encouraging.

[AndrewG-S]

I managed this without access to Internet and have still not looked up the theme so the answer is yes. Found it fun, filled in right hand side pretty quickly but slower on left as I had an answer in the wrong place. Thanks Kruger, nearly a very apt setter's name.

[contendo]

Easy clues? Well some of them, yes, but I've now cold-solved 36 out of the 50 (including those without a definition) and the others seem pretty impenetrable. Without solving more I can't begin to start filling the grid, so I'm hoping for some inspiration.

[silversolver]

I am surprised that anyone found this easy - I thought this was a really tough challenge with lots of cold solving required before it was possible to start piecing the grid together. I agree that the theme was rather obscure but it all came together in a very satisfying conclusion. An excellent puzzle - thanks, Kruger!

[contendo]

A breakthrough. 42 answers now and I've filled most of the right half of the grid. It's at an interesting stage, where things are falling into place, but I've no idea as to the theme yet.

[perseverer]

This all seems a rather back-to-front puzzle. You cold solve a sufficient number of clues to let you start filling in the grid. You begin to see how the two groups of answers have to be modified to fit in the grid. Only then do you get enough of the grid filled to let you begin to put clues in order and piece together the messages conveyed by the extra words.
As has been said, if you don't want to, you don't have to resort to Google to confirm the background (but then you miss out on the educational value of a rather obscure theme.)

[jim360]

Finally made a start on the grid fill. Must have it at least partly right because I've got two new answers from it. A long way from the end, but on the plus side I was getting to the end of my cold-solving abilities so progress at last!

[BlackHugh]

Just finished. I was expecting a long period of grid staring but managed to spot the third group quickly. Very satisfying to have completed it as I don't usually enjoy cold solving but I cannot understand how this could have been completed by an average solver in a pre-internet age.