Listener 4477 Word Squares By Elap

[emcee]

Hmm... I have the values of all but five variables but now find one of them has to be 100. Does anyone know if there are any misprints as all the other values 'hang together'.

Nothing on The Listener site.

[kdgs2]

Hi emcee, I have values under 100 for all of the variables, and I understand parts 1 and 3 of the hint, so I think all is OK with the puzzle as it stands, sorry!

[kdgs2]

And I've now completed grid 2 - that was quite a workout, and I really like these numericals that cross over into words. Once again, the mind boggles at how this was constructed. Well worth the bit of preparation I did at the beginning to identify all the valid options for the letters, thanks Elap!

[Elap]

You're welcome, kdgs2

[emcee]

Thanks for verifying all is well, kdgs2.

Back to the drawing board!

[12barblues]

Sneaky! All worked out after removing a mental block. Nice puzzle.

[British_Olympics]

Reached an apparent contradiction with just 3 values to allocate, can I just check that at least one of the expressions in the clues is negative ? So far I have one in 6a and wonder whether I've missed another ?

[Contrarian]

Wow, what a great puzzle.
I fell into a rather obvious trap, and ended up spending far too long on this.

Thanks Elap.

[Cruncher]

Got a terrible muddle with the preamble early on but lots of fun once underway and some subterfuge was spotted...

[crosswhit99]

BO, there's no negative expression in 6a, but there are in a couple of down clues - check carefully the value of the letter that appears only once.

[British_Olympics]

Thanks for the pointer crosswhit - I had indeed gone down a long blind alley by assigning the wrong value to E, and hence also to N, O, t , e and L. Even so, the values of (O + t) (O - L), (L + t) and (e-W) were correct, (N-e) differed by 18 and (t - N) differed by 32, all of which meant the answers to 5a, 6a, 10a, 15a, 19a, 2d, 3d,13d (x2) and 14d were nevertheless correct !

[logophile]

92 6123, 09'8 2 5621 72896530646 !!

[Monkmonk]

Logophile - can you beat this?
0735249042109068

[logophile]

0 2335640296 098 8364021 84216 765098 45090421 2441207, 0'7 36880708904 ;-)

[Monkmonk]

I'M AN OPTIMIST even if I can't encode it. However I could have SMALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

[crosswhit99]

423092108904 45636 861165 ? (11)

[Alekhine]

I made the schoolboy error, and it cost me a fair bit of time.

Annoying, as I learned that lesson many years ago ... but forgot it.

Grrr!

[emcee]

So near yet so far with my original post! Silly of me ...

Anyway, all done now and a superb construction.

Many thanks, Elap; another great numerical.

[icynorth]

Yes, a fine puzzle, even if I had to start again from scratch twice. I was fooled by a wonderful red herring in the hidden message. I hope it was intentional. It deserves prizes. Many thanks, Elap!

[midgler]

I take it that the "unwritten code" which got me into hot water a few weeks ago doesn't apply to numericals? I thought I'd accidentally wandered into the other forum.

[Scorpius]

Midgler, as far as I'm aware, the "unwritten code" applies to numerical Listeners as much as normal ones. I'm not sure why it has been ignored this week.

I'm still battling on with this tough beast. I've finished the initial grids after a few hold-ups caused by carelessness on my part. I'll leave the endgame until tomorrow.