Listener 4227: 42 By Xanthippe

[trux]

Well, that was quite a workout!! Scant help from the preamble made for tricky end-game even after sussing what the 42 were. Not a subject I know anything about so cannot comment on the specific accuracy or plausibility of the final manoeuvres. Some foxy clueing, too. Definitely feel like I deserve a drink but, alas, today is 1st of Feb and Feb is my dry month....Many thanks to Xanthippe for another hard test.

[IainGrace]

So much for the last post from I of IainGrace. G has meantime just rattled through the endgame.

[sunny-dave]

All done and dusted in an afternoon and evening - although I took rather longer than necessary looking for the final pair ... word blindness I think (or possibly the glass or two of red).

Tough clueing I thought, but all ultimately parsable, a neat (although seen before?) theme and it all fits very nicely together at the end.

Thanks Xanthippe.

[Alekhine]

Well behind the pack this week after another wild weekend at Alekhine Towers.

What's the consensus on the cedilla? I've chosen to include it in my entry.

[JackDeCrow]

Nice puzzle I thought - even if my grid was a bit messy for a while! Thanks Xanthippe. Still don't understand the wordplay to 35a, though, but the answer (which I can just about see the definition for) is confirmed by other circumstances. Hopefully posting here will bring the light!

[contendo]

I think I'll call it a day on this one. I've filled 95% of the grid, including 8dn & 42ac, got various clashes but see no way to apply the theme, even having looked up the 2008 crossword on the same theme.

[olichant]

Having just sent my entry off, I had the very last PDM, which made me chuckle. Alekhine - I'm hoping it can't matter in this case (in fact, arguably, in one of the recent Listeners an accent arguably became necessary as a result of the endgame, but on balance, I thought the preamble did not require it to be inserted. Am hoping I'm not wrong).

[contendo]

Jim360 - I see University Challenge has started the semis. When are you appearing?

[Alekhine]

Re; the cedilla

My thinking was that it can't be wrong to include it, whereas not including could be considered incorrect.

[perseverer]

Is it not the normal practice to ignore an accent? The wordplay does not indicate it here. In the KEEP IT DOWN case, there was clearly an extra instruction - unfortunately many (myself included) failed to understand it!

[jim360]

@Contendo - the quarter-finals have started rather than the semis. Not sure when exactly my next appearance(s - there will be at least two due to the way the competition works) will be but it's going to be either the 18th or 25th of February, I presume.

I'm hoping the cedilla doesn't matter -- indeed I didn't even realise this puzzle had one anywhere until about two minutes ago!

[olichant]

Incidentally on the wordplay/definition/wordplay issue - which is curious - might it be that the setter originally came up with definition/wordplay (i.e., without the first wordplay) - which would itself be a delightful clue (I think) but which, in itself, has an alternative and equally valid solution? Just a thought.

[Texasetes]

Yes, olichant, that's possible (and in fact the alternative solution was the one which I first came up with). But in that case the original wordplay, elegant though it was, should surely have been dropped. The result would have been a conventionally-structured clue which is unambiguous, albeit not as misleading as the setter's first version.

[Cruncher]

I found the latter stages of this a bit of a slog. Remembered the theme from a few years ago and wasn't difficult to work out the highlighting so thereafter the final few entries became rather laborious with no further treats in sight. Some jolly fine clueing though.

Ou est le cedilla? Je n'ai pas le trouve

[jim360]

@ contendo -- it's just been announced that the 3rd quarter-final will not be featuring King's College, so we'll be in the last one which, barring delays, wil lbe February 25th. I'm sure I won't be able to resist saying something nearer the time...

[perseverer]

Cruncher - dans le fruit pourpre.

[Cruncher]

Yup - spotted that but that's not what it says on my Innocent Smoothie carton. Whom am I to trust?

[borealis]

Late starter this week; 50 minutes to go before 4228, and I stagger there over the last wordplay......a lovely, mind-twisting puzzle. I am afraid I didn't even notice the wordplay/def/wordplay clue till checking at the end. Really enjoyed every minute of this, Xanthippe. Even after the denoument - no accent there, and I omitted the cedilla in the entry - there was some lovely reminiscent-of-numerical logical working out to be done.

[turast]

Really Cruncher ? Everybody is being very polite, but the spirit of pedantry must be appeased.
Surely you meant to write

“Où est la cédille? Je ne l’ai pas trouvée.”?

[turast]

OK everybody. I promise to get out more.