listener 4028

[fancydan]

any thoughts on Mr E's latest.
The number connection fills me with dread.
Have solved about half of the clues and found several clashes.
Cheers

[bobbycollins]

fancydan

I've filled about half of the grid and shall toil until it is completed, but I have no intention of getting involved with numbers.

Since I have set myself a time limit with puzzles I no longer submit, so no need to beat myself up completing tortuous end-games.

I guess that this approach will reduce my completion rate from around forty to twenty something.

Good luck to the more serious solvers with this one.

[cluelessJoe]

Hi guys - thought I was drunk when I read the preamble this morning, and I clearly have not sobered up 10 hours later! Also about half filled, and beginning to wonder where if anywhere this is going to lead - certainly in no position to offer kindly advice to anyone else just yet.

[Speravi]

I have three clues left to solve, but I'm not at all sure about the theme. The title is no help to me at present. I think I have the 36 cells identified, and within that region there is a run of digits that will be familiar to all, but enlightens me not a bit. The other digits that I have are currently meaningless to me. Much of the preamble remains opaque...

[AHearer]

I'm struggling with this. I have enough numbers now to make me think I know the shape of the region. I have three solutions with lengths that differ from those in parentheses; two intersect and I can think of the whole overlap as a shape. The third intersects with a clue I haven't solved yet, but I can see that the intersection could yield a similar shape. I also think I have one incorrect solution, leading to a clash where I don't think there should be one. And as to where to go from here.... Maybe cluelessJoe has given us the answer: maybe you have to be drunk to solve this one. Might try that later.

[emcee]

I'm having trouble with this too. I've solved just over half of the clues and found 8 conflicting cells plus one of the clues that are wrongly described by length.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm...... alcohol may well be the answer.

[uncletony]

This is a really fun one, and well worth persevering with. The preamble is just to my taste - seeming jibberish that eventually resolves to an accurate instruction manual.

[turnerjmw]

I loved this. Fair clueing which allowed steady progress, and an elegant denouement, even if I was too slow to grasp it. Many thanks and congratulations to the setter!

[Speravi]

All became clear, and, as uncletony says, what appeared to be impenetrable turned out to be a perfectly fair and accurate guide to what needed to be done. I did spot three letters in the 3 by 3 region very early on and thought their presence was unlikely to be a coincidence, but their role in the overall theme escaped me for a long time. Overall, this provided a great deal of entertainment. My mind boggles at the construction of a puzzle like this: quite fantastical. My only niggle is that I reluctantly entertain a scintilla of doubt over the soundness of 29 across.

[starwalker]

I have an inherent dislike of puzzles where the preamble contains three times more words than the puzzle grid itself. Hence I find myself struggling with both this puzzle and a hefty dose of flu - alcohol is not helping either.
I have the 36 numerical cells and most of the grid completed and yet the 3 x 3 region is not yet apparent, but is obviously staring at me. I think that I will have a go at the Sundays' and come back to this a little later. Perhaps all that is needed is a change of alcohol.

[emcee]

I've managed to complete it after a session in the wee small hours. uncletony is spot on, it's well worth seeing through and the rather verbose preamble does unravel itself nicely.

My sole concern is the purpose of the answer at 33ac. The wording in the definition part of the clue seems imprecise - to me, anyway! Unless I'm mistaken - and please correct me if I am - I don't think knowledge of it makes any difference to the final changed state of the puzzle.

[u10]

Speravi - regarding 29Ac - it's a reverse clue at=to and then a word for a police station.
Emcee - 33Ac is the clue referred to at the end of the preamble. Think about the theme and then link the answer to the first six words of the clue.
Can anyone help with the wordplay to 24Dn and 30Dn? I have the answers but don't see why.
This really is a good puzzle and worth seeing through to the end.

[lordbadger]

Emcee, I guess 33a uniquely defines which two cells must be changed (and to what).

[lordbadger]

I agree u10, this one is top notch, my favourite kind of Listener.

Re 24d. �the speaker� = I, �soprano� = S, and �raised� = the remaining letters.

Re 30d. �examination� = EX; removed from a longer word meaning "one to be imitated perhaps".

[emcee]

Thanks u10 and lordbadger. I finally am confident about the definition at 33ac (although it's not strictly necessary to complete the puzzle) What held me up was never having come across the expression used in that sense before - perhaps I ought to get out more!

[u10]

Thanks lordbadger - I can see both of these answers now. Still not convinced of the relevance of the title but I'm sure it's not important.

[Monkmonk]

When you have relocated one of the shapes what is left in its place? An empty cell?

[failedagain]

A T, obviously!

[kwyjibo]

Not a T - a blank cell I'd say.

[emcee]

I have a blank cell too.

[u10]

I swapped my "shape" with a letter of the same shape - hence there were no empty cells.