Listener 4258 Lassoed By Hotspur

[trux]

Somewhat surprised not to see another post earlier than this. Finished some time ago. Gridfill relatively swift, some of misprints quite hard to spot, but made early (correct) stab at title and then it all started to fall into place. Wordsearch at the end might have been helped by specifying total number of cells involved but few other quibbles. A good Listener, on a good theme, well represented in final grid. Many thanks, Hotspur

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, I came here expecting to see lots of posts as we, too, finished a while ago. We didn't find the endgame at all easy but it all resolved itself nicely. Thanks, Hotspur.

[Simplex]

Loved this one. I had completed everything before I twigged what I had been looking at all along, as must have been intended. Nice touch. Thanks, Hotspur.

[dr b]

A very good & proper Listener. Still a wordplay or two to go back & sort out, but no rush to do so.

[Alekhine]

Yes, this was a bit more like it.

In truth, I probably shouldn't have converted everything using Base 24.

Force of habit really.

[jim360]

268,016...

[perseverer]

Like dr. b, still a couple of wordplays to sort, but it all fits very well into the theme

[emcee]

Quite a nice puzzle with a minimum of anagrams. I thought some of the wordplays were very clever. Thanks to Hotspur!

[lyrabelacqua]

Very enjoyable, and still a considerable tease even after the title was discovered. But what do those poor souls without the Internet do?

[jim360]

Finally finished. Very nice puzzle, hard work, but a satisfying finish. Thanks Hotspur!

[IainGrace]

Just embarked on this. Looks solid middle range. Initial clues solved in bottom right, which is not ideal, but slowly seeping north in the grid.

[starwalker]

Very satisfying. I feel a little sad that it was over so soon. Thanks Hotspur.

[aldanna]

I did enjoy this puzzle, hard enough but not too hard. After a quick start I slowed down considerably but now I have absolutely everything done to my satisfaction....except the six words at the end. I think I may have them all, but I know from past experience that if I'm not quite sure I'm right, I'm usually wrong. I'm the more doubtful as no-one above has expressed any qualms about the end game. Back to Much Staring I fear.

[Scorpius]

A very nice puzzle with some challenging clues that I found quite tricky (still defeated by the wordplay to 15 and 30). I'm not an expert but I'm not convinced that 2 down is ornithologically accurate; the two appear to be related, but not identical. I also had some trouble getting the complete title, partly down to some careless annotation on my part but also because one of the relevant down clues seems perfectly ok as it stands, according to the BRB.

However, am I the only person having difficulty finding 6 words? Having made my selection I have only 5 relevant words (including a hyphenated word). Since my rejects form another relevant word I have no doubt about my selection, but the sixth word is proving frustratingly elusive.

[IainGrace]

Scorpius, we have finished, subject to identifying the last two words. As it happens, we own a copy of the work.

[perseverer]

I don't think you need any reference material, internet or otherwise, to complete the grid, get the title, spot the six words, so no complaints about that. What you might need the internet, etc. for is to appreciate the significance of it all.

[Scorpius]

I found the sixth word. Funny how one can sometimes overlook the bleeding obvious. Interestingly there's another relevant word that briefly tempted me, but it does not accord with the preamble stipulations.
I thought the clues were very inventive, though once or twice "a sledgehammer to crack a nut" came to mind (eg 20).

[Whenland]

Has anyone else noticed an uncanny coincidence between one of the down clues and an answer in today's Azed?

[tilbee]

Only got around to this today due to Hyde Park prom celebrations yesterday, but found this generally on the tougher side. Made somewhat heavy weather of the end game but finally now all resolved - just the wordplay to 7d left to justify. An enjoyable puzzle so many thanks to Hotspur.

[dr b]

Because this puzzle is by Hotspur, and this video is about Hotspur, and it is funny, I present it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KeG_i8CWE8

[dr b]

And - just got this connection, duh - the coach in the video is named Ted Lasso - Ha!