Listener 4456 Shady Characters By Malva

[Ruthrobin]

After quite a long grid stare the light has just dawned - with a smile, of course. When will I learn to read the preamble more carefully! We found some of Malva's clues quite a challenge but are going to enjoy completing our grid. Thank you, Malva!

[djawhufc]

I thought this was a cracker. Some of the thematic items seemed very unlikely.

[starwalker]

Some lovely clues in there. A short bout of "what is this ?" and then clunk, as the penny dropped. Thanks Malva, that was fun and educational.

[Encota]

Great fun! Many thanks Malva!

[AHearer]

This stumped me last night, as I stared at a grid filled after solving some enjoyable clues. As soon as I looked again this morning I realised that I had been overthinking the end-game, and it fell neatly into place. I particularly liked one of the thematic items that I had not come across before. I hope there will be some leniency in the marking of the final grid! Many thanks, Malva, that was great fun.

[Hagen]

Excellent. Very tough but scrupulously fair clues, and there was no doubt about any of the extra letters after solving. Usually I end up with a few guesses and a couple of blanks, and it says a lot for the quality of Malva's clues that this didn't happen even when the message consisted of jumbled words.

Nice neat endgame - feared a GWIT but the penny dropped quite quickly once I read the preamble properly. Thanks Malva.

[upsetter]

Solved the clues, got the theme.
Couldn't be bothered to look for the thematic words.

[Scorpius]

One of those rare occasions when I got the theme as soon as I saw the first two jumbles. The only searching was for a partner to one of the jumbles, a thematic item that I'd never heard of.
Nicely balanced puzzle with plenty of thematic stuff and an endgame that didn't take ages. I agree with starwalker that the clues were very good, with some very natural surfaces here and there.

[HappyUncle]

The end-game raised a smile for me too. Some of the clues were very subtle indeed, but these qualities of elegance and wit have been the hallmark of Malva for 15 years. His/her alter ego gave us much amusement with a thematically linked series of puzzles, and it looks as if that trend will continue. The inverted choice of crucinoms is a delight as well. A gentle genius!

[icynorth]

It's a thumbs-up from me, too.

I was forced to solve all the tricky wordplays to get to the endgame, so I feel I deserved it in the end.

Thanks, Malva!

[Alekhine]

Thank you, Mrs Fletcher, for teaching me the skills required for the endgame. Nice to have learned things at the age of five which come in useful so many years later.

Are there official definitions for the 'unjumbles'? If not, spare a thought for JEG.

[olichant]

Very nice, clean puzzle. Thanks, Malva. Took me a while to figure what goes under the grid.

[borealis]

Oh dear. Had to get all the jumbles before spotting the theme. So slow, since like Scorpius and AHearer, I was familiar with all but one of the items, and the Extra, which then came quickly. A mixture of clues - some straightforward, but quite a few delightfully subtle. Nice puzzle with good pdms. Nothing ambiguous, either! Thanks, Malva.

[pushmi-pullyu]

All there but for the extra. Perhaps if I sleep on it?

[Scorpius]

Pushmi-pullyu, you have two routes to the extra item, hard and easy. The hard way is to consult Bradford's list of items for the second word. Amazingly, in the long list of words of the required length all but one can be eliminated because they have letters that are not in the list of letters provided by the extra words. Once you have that, the first word can be worked out fairly easily.

The easier option is to use this site:
http://anagram-solver.net

[icynorth]

Yes, and some logical deduction can help narrow down the choice of the first word from its length.

[Cruncher]

Helpful anagram checker. I had run the letter mix through various others without success. Would be impressed if anyone cold-solved that last step.

[starwalker]

I confess to the use of TEA.

[greenfarmroad]

Agree with all above and thanks. I do seem to be improving though will never move from the 4th Division (but may have a cup run!). One question to experienced solvers: do I need a (number) of coloured pencils to highlight the eight thematic answers in the grid and to insert the extra word? Advice appreciated.

[icynorth]

That's quite a leading question for this forum. The folks here prefer not to respond to explicit requests like that. All I can offer is the advice of Francis Urquhart in 'House of Cards'. Good luck!

[olichant]

Greenfarmroad - feel free to email me at [email protected]