Listener No 4476 His By Nebuchadnezzar

[Ruthrobin]

This has certainly been the most difficult for us this year. However, it has been so interesting and challenging that we have stayed up well after midnight (for us) to finish it, unable to leave it as the pdms started to clang to the floor. Thank you, Nebuchadnezzar for a really testing puzzle.

[gabrielc]

all i can say is that i'm super-happy about 6D!

[Hagen]

I thought this was brilliant. Very tough, especially the answers with the clashes, but most of the effort went into the solving rather than the very neat endgame, and that's how it should be. No grid-staring, no ambiguity - a thoroughly enjoyable and well-constructed puzzle. Thanks Nebuchadnezzar!

[Encota]

Great fun! Took me until the following morning to finish it, though!

[12barblues]

Very enjoyable, tough but fair and well defined endgame, both in construction and execution. Always good to see a different gimmick as well. Now, back to grid staring for 4475.

[olichant]

Great construction, and some lovely and testing clues. Took me a long time, and I enjoyed every minute.

[olichant]

...though I have just realised I haven't understood the title. Back to the drawing board...

[starwalker]

Wonderful ! A puzzle that just kept on giving, but not very easily at times. Some tough clues that took a while to tease out the answer and a straightforward ending. Thanks Nebuchadnezzar.

[fyellin]

Wordplay for 17A has me stymied.

@gabrielc: My friend Ilan from Tel Aviv also really liked 6D!

@12barblues: For me, it was a PDM rather than grid staring that finally finished #4475. I suddenly just knew exactly what to do. Good luck.

[Alekhine]

Late getting to this. There were some very good clues.

I wondered about the choice of the extra words. Given the apparent freedom of selection, you'd assume it's generally about the surface reading, but I thought there were some odd choices.

Oh well. Thanks, 'Neb', for a tough test.

[Scorpius]

My goodness, I found this rather tough. After a couple of hours I had two-thirds of the answers, so thought it was going to be an average Listener, but getting the remaining third and sorting out the hidden instructions took well over two hours more. I almost despaired of solving 25a and 14d.

The clues were excellent, very inventive with some superb surfaces. Much of my time towards the end of solving was spent fully parsing clues to which I had the answer. I'm still baffled by 17a. A very minor niggle is that the definition in 21, coupled with the minimalist wordplay. means that there are at least three justifiable answers. Trust me to opt for the wrong one, causing a real problem with 31a.

A careless entry (an alternative spelling that's not justified by the wordplay, so my fault this time) delayed my completion of the puzzle according to the second instruction.

An excellent puzzle, packed full of thematic meat. One of the best this year.

[12barblues]

@fyellin. Got it, thanks!

[emcee]

Yes, certainly one of the best this year.

Clues were not easy and some multiple possibilities arose with the entries missing letter(s).

However, an unequivocal endgame and a humorous finish.

Thank you to Neb... for an excellent challenge.

[icynorth]

I agree this was excellent. The endgame had to be after those tough clues and devices.

I had a couple of incorrect answers, and when crossing answers didn’t agree, assumed I’d identified some clashes. It certainly delayed me a while to backtrack those.

Thanks, Nebuchadnezzar - a fine achievement!

[icynorth]

Oh, I’ve just parsed 17. Sneaky!

[sunny-dave]

My that was hard - all done and dusted at last, but the most difficult gridfill for quite a while.

Some excellent clues and at least the final decoration of the grid was not too onerous - thanks Nebuchadnezzar for a true Listener.

[fyellin]

Finally got 17A. Now I just have to figure out what the title means.

[perseverer]

Scorpius - I think 21 down was quite intentional. Hard to explain why without giving things away, but without it one aspect of the puzzle would be untested.

[fyellin]

@Perserver: I think I have to agree with Scorpius on this one. One of the things I prefer about cryptic crossword puzzles vs "normal" crossword puzzles is that when you get the answer to a clue, you should *know* you have the right answer to the clue. Clues can be hard, but they're supposed to be unambiguous; I shouldn't be worried about whether I have the answer that the setter intended.

[Sorry if I'm using the US names for the two styles; I'm not sure how you distinguish them in the UK. Our normal crossword puzzle are just definitions, but there are no unches.]

[fyellin]

Is it possible to explain the title without spoilers?

[perseverer]

Apologies - my post was based on a flash of inspiration, which on further thought, was a damp squib.