Listener No. 4393: Vingt-Et-Un By Little Hare

[AHearer]

Another pleasant puzzle, with unambiguous clues and a pretty, if straightforward, end-game. Thanks to Little Hare, both for the puzzle and for sending me back to the source of the message.

[starwalker]

Another Listener and another exposure of my ignorance. No real surprise. Very enjoyable, except for my struggle to resolve one of the answers which has taken an inordinate amount of time. Thanks Little Hare, you have made me work for my solution, without any rancour.

[AHearer]

I wonder if that was 22across, starwalker, which held me up for a while.

[starwalker]

Spot on !

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, amusing that the shortest words can give the most trouble but this was delightful, wasn't it, with a lovely endgame. Thanks, Little Hare. You know that we would love a setter's blog at Listen With Others.

[Flocker14]

Just the kind of Listener I happen to like. There may be the usual quibbles
about it being on the easy side - and it was indeed possible to work the message backwards having found its author -but ingeniuously constructed and a lot of fun to solve. Thanks Little Hare.

[fyellin]

Yes, I know this is a British puzzle, and I expect to have to deal with British spelling, British popular culture, and the slight differences in vocabulary. But 7D was more obscure than usual!

Another fun puzzle that I couldn't have solved without the Web.

[doctormatt]

Lovely theme: clever link to author and no ambiguity.

[fyellin]

@Flocker14: Indeed, I was able to find the quotation knowing only the author and five consecutive letters of the quotation. This immediately simplified the puzzle, as it was obvious what letters had to be removed from each down clue.

Agreed that it was an ingenious construction and that it fit in extraordinarily well with the quotation.

[lyrabelacqua]

Yes, very enjoyable. No complaints about its relative ease; this is supposed to be a recreation not an occupation. Some delightful wit in the clues. Good to see clues again...

[Scorpius]

An excellent puzzle that packed a lot of thematic material into the grid and the very enjoyable clues. What was revealed by the six items was a great finishing touch. The implementation of the theme was so good that I would venture to say that it could not be bettered.

[upsetter]

Thanks, Lepus Minor.

[s_pugh]

Neat construction, zero ambiguity, fun solve. What’s not to like? Thanks Little Hare, enjoyed that.

[sunny-dave]

Very neat and tidy - good use of the theme, no ambiguity at all and some nice clues of varying difficulty too (22ac was a poser for a while).

An excellent puzzle

Thanks, Little Hare

[HappyUncle]

It's that man again! The lad himself, in fact. I agree with the general opinion that this was a well-crafted puzzle with some nice and often witty clues, leading steadily to a satisfying conclusion.

[pushmi-pullyu]

The comments about 22ac made me look at it again, and I realised I'd got it wrong. Thanks guys!

[Hagen]

I thought this was a splendid puzzle, and it was refreshing to have a final highlighting stage which was a wow rather than a chore. It didn't take me very long even with a storming hangover so I feared complaints from the supersolvers that it was too easy, and I'm glad that my fears were groundless. Nice one, Little Hare - is this a debut?

[icynorth]

Probably a few too many obvious clues for my liking, but all were well presented, as was the theme. I'm not sure that preserving the spacing/punctuation of the message elements was necessary.

I spotted a little hare on holiday last week. Must have been an omen. Thank you!

[Cruncher]

Confess I didn't find the cluing altogether obvious with a few wordplays left to unravel. Finally twigged the wordplay for 32ac. Always amazed when you get to the end and realise how much stuff has been squirelled away in the grid!

[IainGrace]

Agree with comments. Nice theme, good clues, and satisfying endgame. No fan of the source material, though...

[Lewap]

Stumped on 22 ac too (well the choice of middle letter to be precise) - apart from that a very elegant puzzle!