Listener 4033: Beat It! by Lavatch

[emcee]

Evening all. I hope you don't mind me setting the ball rolling this week.

This week's puzzle is by Lavatch and has another hefty preamble. Good luck everyone...

[AHearer]

Thanks for starting this, emcee. I seem to be attacking this in a strange order, or maybe going for the soft underbelly. The missing letters in the definitions are fairly obvious, so I have the two titles and what follows immediately from them, but so far only three words entered in the grid!

[midazolam]

impressive to get the titles that early AHearer. I had to wait until three quarters of the grid complete before I could find the titles, which as you say leads straight to the third title, author and the hero. With this I could fully complete the theme without working out the other letters from the wordplay and then finish the grid.

I preferred Lavatch's combination lock puzzle last year which had a better PDM

[turnerjmw]

Quite good fun. No jaw dropping pdms, perhaps, but well constructed and soundly clued, I think. Thanks, Lavatch

[Walterloo]

I liked this a lot, actually. For me, it was one of those satisfying puzzles that, once finished, you could sit and admire it. Some good clues, too, the definitions and wordplay to some of them forcing me to think a little harder and deeper than normal.

[AHearer]

All but one done now (just one unchecked letter to insert, and I can't reconcile either of the posibilities with the definition), and I like the construction of the words forming the lines. By comparison, the insertion of the hero's name seems almost untidy.

[starwalker]

A satisfying solution with a neat image, though I do agree that the inclusion of the hero seemed almost clumsy by comparison.

[cluelessJoe]

Agree with you all - neat, elegant construction of the 'diagram', testing in places without being impenetrable, and a hint of disappointment over the hero. I went the AHearer route with very early spot of the thematic elements helping me to work back and finish the grid.

[Mr Crossy]

Evening all. I thought I should reconcile the missing wordplay letters for good measure, and I'm short of an N. I'm not all that bothered, but curious to know if anyone agrees.

[Ruthrobin]

We've just got the titles (all three, since the third naturally follows and, in fact - owing to the title - was even mentioned as likely before we had a single clue) but, like AHearer was at first, are short on clues and now have to work backwards with all that word play to sort out. and the mistifying curved and straight lines.

[Mysterons]

Mr Crossy - you shold have an N missing from the wordplay of 3 clues (18,19 and 22)

[Ruthrobin]

4d is an appropriate description of my progress. Might I ask for a prompt - I have the hero of the third title where I am sure he must go - but should this complete five Chambers words? Is the answer connected with the clashing letters mentioned in the preamble? Thanks in advance.

[Mr Crossy]

Hi Mysterons, yes I have three Ns but I think I need four of them.

[turnerjmw]

Mr Crossy, I think "shared" letters are only required once

[Mr Crossy]

turnerjmw, do you not have three Ts?

[Mr Crossy]

Ruthrobin,yes, he completes five Chambers words or phrases, as anyone can tell by locating the discrepancies between light spaces and given lengths (just covering myself here, you understand!). There's no other connection.

[turnerjmw]

No, just the two. The sum of their clue numbers is 49. I did find the reconciliation quite tough, though, so I'm happy to be proved wrong!

[Mr Crossy]

Well turnerjmw I have a third, arising from the finally satisfactory resolution of a clue whose wordplay I was unhappy with, until I realised I had interpreted part of the definition as a cryptic indicator. It is adjacent to one of the constituents of your sum. (My, this is getting quite cloak and dagger, isn't it?!)

[turnerjmw]

Sorry, I'm losing you. My fault, of course, as I started the camouflage as I didn't want to make it too obvious which clues the letters were in. Am I right in thinking your third T is in an across clue? Is it before or after the one we presumably agree on?

[Mr Crossy]

It's in the down clue after.

[turnerjmw]

That IS interesting. I see exactly how you get it. I interpreted the middle word as a cryptic indicator, to reverse the plural of a common three letter word (which has the singular form of the last word of the clue as a given meaning in Chambers), leaving the second letter of the grid entry as the only extra letter. Both seem equally valid, to me, though yours does, as you suggest, complicate the reconciliation. Presumably you were unhappy with the definition in the cryptic indicator route, though