Listener No 4264 Commission By Aedites

[Ruthrobin]

What a pleasure to have a theme that yielded itself so nicely without a fearsome final grid staring process. Of course we have had to resist the urge to insert the correct letters and it has been entertaining to find those misprints anywhere in the clue. Very enjoyable, thank you Aedites.

[starwalker]

Yes, all fairly straightforward and enlightening. Thanks Aedites.

[AHearer]

Nice and straightforward. I, too, slipped up by jotting down the correct rather than incorrect letters a couple of times: what creatures of habit we are!

[BobHWW]

A gentle solve after some of the previous weeks. A good starter puzzle for Listener newcomers.

[Coalminers]

I assume 22 in the across clues should be 23

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, we assumed that too. Very unusual for the Listener to have an error of that type but there could be no doubt at all about what was intended.

[lyrabelacqua]

Nice to have the weekend free for once!

[jim360]

Still a couple of wordplays to sort out (which in turn means I'm not 100% sure of one entry) but otherwise a pleasant Listener. The PDM came fairly early in the revealing of the message, but even then it took a while to find where to place the names around the perimeter. All came together very nicely and I've learned six new names from the relevant act too.

[Scorpius]

I found this pretty straightforward and made rapid progress until I reached the SE corner, which took me an age to fill, even though I had narrowed the names in that area to 4 possibilities. It was helpful to get the theme early on by guessing at the complete message after I had just over half the letters. Slightly unsure of the correct letter in a couple of cases, though I'm reasonably sure of the answer.

Re above comment on 22/23 across, the online version is correct.

33 seems perfectly ok as it stands. It's clear what the correction is, but I don't think it needs correcting for the clue to work (using Chambers as a reference).

[perseverer]

For once I managed to avoid trying to use the correct letters for the message, but I found that solving clues was harder even when I knew the incorrect letter, but couldn't decide what the correct version should be.

Re 22/23 across the online version did initially have the error but it has now been altered.

[Mesnilpat]

I only started this morning and have just finished. Most enjoyable after last week's slog. Thanks Aedites.

[tilbee]

I really should know better by now. Grid was almost complete but I was still scratching my head over the act and date until I finally re-read the first line of the preamble.

[IainGrace]

Enjoyable but would have been cleverer if correct letters gave a sensible surface reading. 29 across for example makes no sense.

[emcee]

A much welcome straightforward one this week. Thanks goodness Sabre wasn't this week otherwise I'd have been snowed under!

[Cruncher]

All perfectly straightforward although not all the corrected letters are easy to verify. Is anyone else struggling with a convincing wordplay for 31ac? Answer seems obvious enough but my wordplay is rather convoluted.

[teuchter2]

Cruncher, I think 32 across consists of three definitions, one of which has the misprint, but not necessarily the one you first think of. I hope this is not giving too much away, but the correct answer is not in doubt here. My problem is with 26a, as I have two possible answers, neither of which contains a highway, as I understand it. One is closer than the other, but if it is that one, then I can't work out the correction for the misprint. Nor do I understand 29a, but I don't need to. Apart from these I found it straightforward. I've made no further progress with the Sabre, but gave up trying some time ago.

[Cruncher]

Thanks Teuchter 2 ( who was/is Teuchter 1 BTW?). Re 26ac I'd check the relevant parts of your answer against the BRB re highway. 29ac is probably more strightforward than you think. Still tussling with 31ac and suspect I have an incorrect letter somewhere

[teuchter2]

I have no idea who Teuchter 1 is! My spiel about 32 should have been about 31! I must have hit the wrong key without realising. I will check on highway again, although I have done that once and am not quite convinced.

[teuchter2]

Yes, got it now. Guilty of not reading to the end again. It was my preferred answer.

[fyellin]

I feel a little bit cheated when the only way I can solve a puzzle is by using Wikipedia. I suppose if I weren't American, the date might have meant something to me, but I had to it up in Wikipedia.

Even then, only one of "those having a hand" was recognizable. Are these household names in the UK?

[emcee]

fyellin, not in this household! Nor in many others too, I'd imagine!