Listener No. 4363: Demolition By Schadenfreude

[AHearer]

As ever with Schadenfreude, a great pleasure to solve. I had to backtrack to find a few missing missing letters, though. I wonder whether this was one that was rejected by CAM as too easy (or perhaps the CAM crosswords were rejected from the Listener as too hard).

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, a delightful crossword to solve, though we too had to backtrack to find a few missing letters once Wiki had guided us to the proposition.

[perseverer]

Still to account for one missing letter tho' not many possibilities to choose from.

[tnap]

After complaining about grid-staring last week, this one was a lot more straightforward. Now to find something to do for the rest of Saturday...

[emcee]

Not one of Schadenfreude's better offerings but still a good crossword. I'm not sure why it should be called 'demolition' though, as there must be more appropriate alternative words for what happens.

[Scorpius]

Yes, good fun. A lot easier than I expected. I have not come across the proposition before. Must get out more.

[perseverer]

Emcee - Chambers might provide the answer

[s_pugh]

Wanted an easy (?) Listener today as short on time, so my heart sank when I saw the setter. But it was a great puzzle, neat and utterly unambiguous. Many thanks Schadenfreude, an absolute gem.

[jim360]

A little puzzled by one of the missing letters (I have it out of position, I think), and one of the entries. And I found the grid-fill fairly tough, as I always tend to with Schadenfreude. But made it to the end with some relief, and I liked the finish.

[aldanna]

A few tricky wordplays, but not too hard a gridfill. Not too much grid-staring either, even for someone who is fairly useless at that. A fun crossword, thanks Schadenfreude.

[icynorth]

Another enjoyable and unambiguous puzzle - thanks Schadenfreude!

[olichant]

Well, my guess as to the theme based on the preamble was miles out. I liked this implementation of the theme, and not as hard as I feared based on recent CAM puzzles.

[Cruncher]

Little grumpy here. Submittable grid as far as I can tell but unable to justify the third missing letter, as both clues involved seem to be complete as they stand, and 27dn was only fully solvable with the information provided by the end game. Apologies. Otherwise it was satisfying to knock off a Schadenfreude in an afternoon of course.

[perseverer]

Cruncher - obviously don't want to say too much here, but do look closely at the BRB entry for one of the words you refer to.

[Scorpius]

Re Cruncher's comment on 27d, I don't know why the answer was clued in that way, 'Spanish queen' being a bit obscure to many, I imagine. The clue would work just as well without 'Spanish.' Perhaps it was just to throw in a teaser in an a generally easy puzzle, or perhaps to place the solver in the same position as ...

[Cruncher]

Perseverer, thanks. Understand it now. Was being lazy. Still a little grumpy about 27dn though

[UglyUncle]

Straightforward but enjoyable to identify and resolve the proposition. I thought 27 was unambiguously clued but agree with Scorpius's suggested abridgement. Nobody else seems to have had the trouble I did with 15 - not in solving it, but in justifying the solution in relation to the clue: surely it only works if 'of' is changed to 'for'.

I also thought the elliptical element of the clue to 21 was out of keeping with the usual broadly Ximenean standards of The Listener.

[Essira]

No problem with 15, head of this is T

[starwalker]

Pretty much in agreement with all that has been said. Cross with myself that I spent so much time on the endgame. Must be an age thing.

[olichant]

Actually, I've just realised I don't understand 27d at all - I had been a little careless. Back to the drawing board...

[Scorpius]

UglyUncle, I agree with your comment on 21a. A very oblique reference, more in the style of a certain Guardian setter. I hope it doesn't become fashionable.