Crosswords0 min ago
Listener 4227: 42 By Xanthippe
59 Answers
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.
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For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.Did you all get the puzzle from the Crossword Club site? I'm getting a message that my account does not allow access. Maybe my membership has expired, but I can't find how to renew it. Is there still a separate membership for the Crossword Club, as opposed to subscribing to all of The Times?
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
Scooterbug, yes, we have a Crossword Club subscription that used to be automatically renewed annually - mine is coming up for renewal next week. Other people have been having the problem you describe. Go to the Crossword Centre message board (Derek Harrison's board) and you will read a series of messages from despairing people. The Times claim they are putting things right in April but we suspect there is some jiggery pokery going on and they are perhaps attempting to eliminate the club. Certainly they will not succeed in getting crossword club members to buy the full annual subscription. They are just making their long-suffering members very frustrated.
This one proved tougher than I at first thought it would be. The PDM came fairly early on, but the final couple of pairs took me an age to find. Some very good clues, one of which still puzzles me; its structure is made unconventional by what seems to be some extraneous wordplay. Maybe I'm missing something, but I can't see what.
And like last week's Kea the mechanics of the grid is quite an impressive feat of construction.
Thank you, Xanthippe.
And like last week's Kea the mechanics of the grid is quite an impressive feat of construction.
Thank you, Xanthippe.
trux & Ruthrobin: yes, that's the one. You may well be right, Rr - maybe Xanthippe will mention it in a setter's blog.
I always try to make sure I understand everything about a clue and its answer in case the setter is pulling a fast one. I'm even more pernickety since Sabre's KEEP IT DOWN, which I still don't like to think about.
I always try to make sure I understand everything about a clue and its answer in case the setter is pulling a fast one. I'm even more pernickety since Sabre's KEEP IT DOWN, which I still don't like to think about.
I found some of the clueing pretty tricky and, despite having got the 8 and 42 really quickly, I struggled to get the endgame for a while, but am now totally satisfied with my grid. This was a masterly construction, leaving quite a lot to be deduced, and my first thought about what would happen in the grid was wrong!
I also got 8/42 very early and made an early guess (which turned out to be correct) as to what the final highlighting would look like. So I was expecting something as quick as last week. But, I got hung up on a few short answers which turned out to be crucial. However, once the grid was full the endgame was very quick for me (so hang in there aldanna). A proper Listener indeed.
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