Listener No. 4345: Essentials By Samuel

[AHearer]

The length of the preamble was a bit off-putting, but taking my courage in both hands and plunging in showed enough fairly straightforward clues to be able to get started. The last step was a bit tricky, as I hadn't solved every clue so didn't have the clash. Luckily I had enough to be able to see what the 11 straight lines were, and I could position them by completing the essential with the three omitted letters. Then I could finish. Thanks, Samuel: that was fun.

[starwalker]

Somehow, I found myself completing this from top left to bottom right, rather than my random scatter-gun approach. Always nice to finish with a smile as the penny finally drops. Thanks Samuel, you often been a trouble to me - but not this time.

[Pasquin]

Filled the grid before even starting to think about what the extra letters etc meant, and then the pdm came in several stages. I've always had an armchair fascination with the things, without ever feeling I should be getting out more. Definitely fun. Thanks, Samuel.

[s_pugh]

Blimey – so few posts! Perhaps everyone's too busy celebrating or crying after yesterday’s shenanigans. Some tough clues but I was lucky to get the theme and unclued entries very early on, perhaps helped by memories of thematic participation at a considerably younger age. Thanks Samuel, an enjoyable outing even if the wordplay in 33dn has me completely lost. It’ll probably come to me as soon as I press submit …

[s_pugh]

D'oh! Why does that always happen??? I'd studied that clue for ages!

[doctormatt]

Very enjoyable: like many, too bleary eyed to start yesterday!

[Cruncher]

Haven't got round to starting this one yet as I'm still knee deep in Ilver's Child's Play from the current Magpie and wondering if anyone else is. I reckon I have a complete set of clue solutions but can't fit them into the octahedra so presume that at least one of my answers must be incorrect. Before I abandon it I would love to compare clue answers if anyone is willing to. My email is [email protected]

[jim360]

Turned out to be less hard than it looked at first, and a very nice final result too! Thanks Samuel.

[Cagey]

I liked this, about a theme which I love and still love, especially at night. thank you for a great puzzle Samuel, a nice final grid and a good mix of clues.
The magpie this month is also fab.

[IainGrace]

Agree with other comments. Less daunting than the rubric suggested. We found the north east corner a good entry point.

[AndrewG-S]

This was a lovely puzzle, entertaining and amusing as the theme became clear. Also I liked the innovative use of the extra letters. Many thanks Samuel

[contendo]

I enjoyed this. En route I produced some pretty weird sketches as you only need one wrong misprint for things to go wildly astray. It helped when I guessed the 12-letter theme and was able to work backwards. My ignorance of 1970s bands didn't help and that proved to be the final hurdle.

[icynorth]

This wasn't at all difficult, but it was a high-quality puzzle, well-clued, with a theme I haven't seen before.

I suspected the theme early on after finding 40/41, observing the nature of the instructions, and seeing that an obvious 12 seemed to fit. No surprises thereafter, but comfortable confirmations. Thank you!

[UglyUncle]

You won't catch me taking part in the thematic business, no matter what time of day it is, but this was about as good a vicarious alternative as anyone could wish for, for which much thanks.

I don't think I've ever encountered a puzzle with so many clues that could have been solved - with absolute precision - in other ways: I'm thinking of 17, 28 down (generating an incorrect surplus letter) and 33 (again resulting in something unusable). I started with the wrong 'un in all of them. Were they intentional, I wonder?

[Whenland]

Great fun, helped in our case by an early correct guess about 12. Thank you Samuel!

[borealis]

Working out the resolution took a while - shouldn't have! Like UglyUncle I had some justifiable alternatives (eg 9) only resolvable (other than with crossing letters) by the limitations on the extra letters. Lovely surface readings in lots of these clues. Good fun. Thanks, Samuel.

[olichant]

A late start for me this week, and quite a slow solve (thanks to a number of really sneaky clues). But well worth it. Thanks, Samuel, that was fun. And I'm a big personal fan of the theme.

[olichant]

A late start for me this week, and quite a slow solve (thanks to a number of really sneaky clues). But well worth it. Thanks, Samuel, that was fun. And I'm a big personal fan of the theme.

[olichant]

A late start for me this week, and quite a slow solve (thanks to a number of really sneaky clues). But well worth it. Thanks, Samuel, that was fun. And I'm a big personal fan of the theme.

[olichant]

A late start for me this week, and quite a slow solve (thanks to a number of really sneaky clues). But well worth it. Thanks, Samuel, that was fun. And I'm a big personal fan of the theme.

[olichant]

A late start for me this week, and quite a slow solve (thanks to a number of really sneaky clues). But well worth it. Thanks, Samuel, that was fun. And I'm a big personal fan of the theme.