Listener 4269 Journey To The Centre By Ilver

[Monkmonk]

I’m surprised that no one has yet commented on this first-class puzzle. Not the usual numerical but a thoroughly entertaining exercise in logic as well as plenty of clues to solve. Thank you, Ilver.

[jim360]

I was hoping to comment on it earlier but ran into the stumbling block that I'm not convinced I have the right idea to do the shading. Hopefully the grid at least is correct. More thinking to do.

[emcee]

A superlative puzzle.

I can't imagine how the setter concocted this with all the levels of constraint put on the clues. Admirable indeed.

I keep revising my opinion of 'puzzle of the year' as the year progresses but in my (current) opinion this is going to take some beating.

Many thanks, Ilver, for a true masterpiece.

[trux]

Well done to MM and MC (if I may you address you so) for going through the final slog ... I have completed grid - which I thoroughly enjoyed once I had a few letters to work with - and think I know the right method to work out which cells to shade, but am not sure I currently have the strength to codify every cell (which seems like it may take longer than an England innings. Then again, so does sneezing these days). Thanks to Ilver (so far....)

[trux]

Inspired by jim360's comment, had a rethink and have now cracked it! In my view I felt that (one word of) the preamble was rather misleading in how it described the method ... but it's a joy to behold once I'd gone down the right path. Many thanks Ilver for another multi-dimensional masterpiece.

[jim360]

All sorted myself, after an alternative idea for interpreting the final message produced a coherent shading. Saw what the result would be fairly soon afterwards but it was still instructive to follow the logical solution to the final shading. This must have been a nightmare to construct with the various constraints, so thanks Ilver for persevering!

[AHearer]

Whew! It took me three copies of the grid before I got through the shading. Even when I had an idea of where it was going I kept slipping up. An astonishing construction, with very fair but sometimes challenging clues. Many thanks, Ilver.

[Cathyhuns]

Am I the only one disappointed that this week's puzzle isn't a numerical? And does anyone know why it isn't? I might be a minority of one but I can much prefer numericals.

[jim360]

I expect it's because, let's face it, it's an anniversary puzzle. Pushes numericals back. Hopefully the last of the year next week.

[tilbee]

Think I am in the same position as Trux was a few hours ago. A slow but steady grid fill this afternoon, and fairly sure I understand the methodology for the shading, but will leave to tomorrow before embarking on this in earnest.

[AHearer]

Is there a special term for puzzles with this mode of entry of the solutions? If not, I suggest haggis: lights stirred together, and found challenging by many.

[olichant]

I second AHearer's superb suggested term!

I found the grid fill great fun (not dissimilar to the golfing puzzle last autumn). And the endgame was just great. This whole puzzle was dazzling - thanks, Ilver.

[tilbee]

Yes, had to come back to this, and endgame has fallen out very nicely. Still had a little headscratching before I justified the letter that I knew had to go in the middle cell. Another excellent puzzle from Ilver, many thanks.

[jim360]

How about "Snaking"?

[AHearer]

Would that be venomous or constricting?

[AndrewG-S]

Tortuous?

[Scorpius]

As I was solving the clues I kept losing track of the cell numbers in the grid, so made much slower progress than expected, considering how easy most of the clues were. I've finished the grid but so far haven't seen how to apply the hidden instruction, which seems rather vague to me with an indefinite article.
I agree that the grid must have been a nightmare to construct.

Initially I rejected my answer to 30 because it wasn't in Chambers. Once I completed the grid I found my answer confirmed. Surely the preamble should alert solvers to words not in Chambers.

[contendo]

Scorpius, it's a valid derivation from a word in Chambers. I don't want to be too specific but it would be OK, for example, to use the past participle which wasn't in Chambers of a verb which was.

[Scorpius]

Contendo, I certainly agree with you in the case of a past participle. Other cases are less clear-cut (I will also avoid being too specific). However, I have just used the Chambers CD ROM partial word search, keying in some of the letters, and the answer does come up. I thought I'd done this previously, but perhaps I made an error entering the letters and blanks.

Am I the only one still struggling to interpret the instruction? I seem to be losing my grip these days.

[upsetter]

Shading done but completely stymied by the final instruction

[starwalker]

Scorpius - No. I'm exactly at the same place as you.