Listener 4533 - Telling Lies

[Philoctetes]

I stared at this for a while until my brain clicked into the style of cluing - and then it poured out in a rush. Some neat cluing, some simple. And the end game was amusing. Less of a chore than the last few weeks

[emcee]

Carrying on with the earliest thread, as we normally do.

I thought this had a mixture of very straightforward clues and some beastly ones. Again the NW corner was the last I completed.

Interesting theme, and one I certainly was unaware of.

Thanks, Somniloquist, for an enjoyable solve.

[emcee]

Just as an afterthought ... the only clue remaining to be fully understood is 9dn. I think I know the two components to be used but remain unconvinced by the use of 'on' in the clue.

[s_pugh]

My thoughts exactly, very enjoyable and interesting subject matter that I too was unaware of. Managed to parse everything eventually but 9dn seemed odd to me too, 'on' doesn't sit right for me either. Thanks Somniloquist, most entertaining.

[Hagen]

Very enjoyable, and Philoctetes sums up my thoughts exactly. Nice to have a gentle puzzle after the Herculean labours involved in solving some of the recent ones. Also it's always a joy to learn something completely new from a puzzle, as I did here.

I was taken aback by "on" in 9 down too, but in a sartorial context it can be justified, I think. Certainly a new idea.

I see that the 3122s won the day in Phi's puzzle. Well done to anyone who submitted entries with this score.

I'm away next week so wish all contributors a merry Christmas.

[perseverer]

The theme was new to me too. Some clever and amusing clues - 30across particularly appealed to me.

Incidentally I see Shenanigans from a couple of weeks ago is revealed on the Listener site as David Hennings, of LWO blogging and Crossword Database fame, I presume.

I still think 2622 is a more justifiable score in 4530 - good job I don't submit!

[Scorpius]

This must be one of the easiest puzzles of the year, certainly the easiest since around June. Despite that I gave up trying to make sense of the cryptic syntax of 9d

[upsetter]

Good fun but the subject was a tad recherché.

Quite content with 9dn.

[IainGrace]

Good single session fun and a bit different. The theme was known to us though agree it is a bit obscure. (We appear to have some chocs for Christmas courtesy of the Inquisitor - on the last two occasions that we won the prize the chocs didn’t appear.....)

[sunny-dave]

Gentle enough - I confess to being a bit underwhelmed by the whole thing until I read the wiki article on the Author - but that was interesting and new to me, so I'm happier now.

Thanks Somniloquist.

[Cruncher]

Had zero prior knowledge of the author but an enjoyable solve and a fun if brief endgame

[olichant]

What a nice implementation of the theme.

[icynorth]

An old-fashioned puzzle, thankfully easier than the last couple, but some of the clues weren't to my taste.

As to Phi's puzzle, I fail to see where were directed to convert the scores into Arabic numerals, but then maybe I overthink these things, to my cost.

Thanks, Somniloquist!

[Scorpius]

That's an interesting point, Icynorth. Fortunately it never occurred to me to enter scores in Roman numerals. That would have been yet another ambiguity to agonize over. I hope Roman numerals would be accepted as a valid alternative.