Listener 4855 Just The Job By Hedgehog

[emcee]

An excellent numerical with another amazing construction.

The trickiest part was to find the first small batch of non-zero values. Thereafter I found it reasonably straightforward.

No calculator needed so a perfect puzzle!

Many thanks, Hedgehog.

[Keepatit]

I quite agree, emcee. Finding the way in was much the trickiest part. 28a led me astray for a while. A lovely puzzle

[HawkCrossword]

It's not my cup of tea at all, I'm afraid. This isn't aimed at the setter, of course, who's clearly taken a lot of trouble to produce this, and it works out unambiguously, unlike many puzzles.

The problem is more with this type of puzzle. We've seen everything in it before, more or less. It's a long slog to complete, without getting beyond repeated simple arithmetic. The end result has no thematic significance, neither do the words spelled out in the clues.

These puzzles are better with endgames, as this one has, but I'd still probably enjoy a sudoku puzzle more.

Thanks, Hedgehog.

 

[Canary42]

Too easy Hedgehog, must try harder.

[Oyler]

Canary42.

This is Hedgehog's 5th Listener mathematical puzzle and he's set 34 mathematicals for The Magpie.

As a setter myself I find your comment about this puzzle to be distasteful. Granted it is at the easier end of the spectrum but judging from comments on other sites some are having difficulty with it.

You should have left your comment as "Too easy". The schoolmasterly addition of "must try harder" is unnecessary and offensive especially as you don't give any advice as to how we setters can improve. I'd be most interested to hear your views.

A letter/number assignment puzzle that can be solved without using a computer is a rare beast indeed and this was one of them. In my opinion it was very well set and I'm a tad jealous. Thanks Hedgehog for a most enjoyable puzzle.

You should contact the editors regarding your concern regarding the difficulty of the puzzle.  

[Cruncher]

Oyler - Canary 42 is our resident troll. He says much the same thing each week. I'm sure he finds it amusing, especially if he thinks he can irritate us, but I doubt he even looks at the puzzles.

[Oyler]

Thanks for that information Cruncher. That's good to know. Much appreciated.

[BMACMAC]

Having got nowhere with this numeric puzzle, I've just looked at the published solution to see why I found it so difficult. It appears that I was labouring under the impression that IN THE CLUES, each letter could represent a choice between two distinct values, whereas in the solution given, it appears that the SAME value is assumed throughout the clues. Nothing appears in the instructions to contradict my assumption, which of course makes the puzzle far more difficult, or even impossible. If anyone solved it without making the unjustifable assumption, then I congratulate you, and I'd be interested in seeing how you did it. I did wonder if the same value would be used within any given clue, but never dreamt that this would apply to EVERY clue.