Listener Crossword 4029

[starwalker]

This week's offering is "Office Block" by Duck. Happy Easter to all.

[shelouse]

Thanks, Philoctetes. I got there on the wordplay just after I posted. Shall struggle on. Only 1 clue left to solve now - 34ac. Got badly led astray early on with this.......thought it was an article for a horse and have now got a mental block.

[Speravi]

Quite difficult, I thought. Some tough (but fair) clues, and I had to concentrate not to make mistakes over the misprints and extra letters. I found this a challenge, but an enjoyable one.

[cluelessJoe]

Phew. Made some good early headway on Friday (thanks for the copy Ruth), but then - encouraged by early posts on here and faced with 3 days of glorious sunshine - opted to leave it for a while. Don't know if my brain got fried, but I found it a real struggle on returning and only just finished now. Very nice challenge - if I'm to be picky, I think the old company in 31ac. could just as easily have generated an 'L' as the extra letter but the ambiguity was resolved as soon as the rest of the phrase became apparent.

[JackDeCrow]

I thought that was the hardest of the year so far - just didn't seem to be on the same wavelength as the setter at all. Or maybe chocolate numbs the brain?! Surprised no-one thought the couple of North of England specific references (as well as the old company) were a bit odd. And, even though I can see all the ingredients in 14a, I still don't exactly see how the wordplay puts them in the right order! Maybe I was just too slow to get the theme, as it did get a bit easier after that. Phew.

[Mysterons]

I think 14 is a 'container' clue - track (3) within see rock (1+2)

[JackDeCrow]

Oh yes - that makes sense. Can sleep easy now. My chocolate-filled brain had convinced itself that "having crossed" something meant being "against" it, thus providing the first letter altogether wrongly!
Thanks Mysterons.

[midazolam]

Having moved home over bank holiday and with the internet down for what will seem eternity, I have caught up with this thread at work tonight.

I also found this hard going (toughest for me this year), especially without my usual web based solving aids. I have had to wait until tonight to confirm a couple of entries using wikipedia.

No ambiguities I felt this week. Nice challenge Duck

[robinruth]

Midazolam, you seem to manage so quickly. We are still struggling - can't sort out the 'track' and 'god' in 14, or 24 or 34. We're a lot further on than last week but envious of all of you who finish in a single go and don't struggle all week!

[JackDeCrow]

robinruth - if you've got the rock, the track is a pretty simple word, which leaves you with a single letter - which as per the exchange above, I had totally failed to spot could represent "see".

[cluelessJoe]

Some cunning clueing this week robinruth, and the misprints don't do any favours. If it helps, god is the definition in 14, as is the last phrase in 24 and the first phrase in 34 ... and you might just find that clue 24 generates an extra letter!

[robinruth]

Thank you both, I have finally got 14 - of course that opening letter is in Duck's book - I know what is meant by it seeming so evident once one has understood. Now to work on rats!

[robinruth]

And the rat crept in too - thanks!

[robinruth]

Finished! What astonishingly hard work this has been. Having got the phrase, I was hunting for the 38 letters in horizontal, continuous lines - and totally bamboozled. But oh the satisfaction of having found even the housewife in the end! Thanks. And now another ordeal today!

[Sarrie]

Is anyone unhappy with the wordplayfor 1 down? I would change it rather than study it but there again I am not an electrician.

[turnerjmw]

Well done robinruth! Fantastic effort on your part. My earlier suggestion to spend "some time" considering the title, principally the first word, was meant as a subliminal hint, but I don't think it worked. An excellent reference to the Mud classic, too, in your penultimate post

Sarrie, I too thought 1d was slightly loose. "Study carefully" was the meaning I settled on in Chambers, but I wasn't entirely happy with it.

[robinruth]

Thanks turnerjmw! - You'll laugh when I say that the advice to study the title led me into suspicions that we were falling off ice and extra letters soon seemed to confirm that we were involved in a famous naval disaster - followed by a suspicion that this somhow commemorated April 1909 - Peary's reaching of the North Pole (if he did). How wrong can one be? I don't think I understand the second word of the title even now.
The other half of the team commented re 1d that modern electricity doesn't use those any more - but I liked the whimsy of the clue.

[Cruncher]

Gosh I made heavy weather of this one. Only just pipped the 4pm Friday deadline. Complicated things for myself by making an elaborate argument for REALIGN at 21dn which made a total farrago of the bottom RH corner. Well done to those of you who finished it days ago!