Listener Crossword 4035

[midazolam]

Morning! (or should I say that in French?)

This weeks listener is "Half a Dozen" by Nibor

Tough one this week to fill the grid because the inserted letters are randomly placed. Liked it because it was a challenge and with a different slant to put the missing letters into the grid, but thematically not exciting (having got the theme early on).
Nothing to find / highlight and jumbling up the 6 thematic words i presume was only done to make it harder for the solver.

[AHearer]

Agreed, midazolam. It's perhaps worth pointing out that in many places the two-word unclued entry is written as one word.

[robinruth]

I'm afraid we are finding it fairly impenetrable and I was wondering how to ask whether we should be finding complete, Chambers words when we insert those letters into the words of the grid entry. The preamble doesn't say so - am I supposed, therefore, to assume that complete words plus an unrelated extra letter can go in?

[starwalker]

Yes midazolam, once the theme has been uncovered it just becomes a bit of a slog to fill the grid correctly. Still, at least I have learned something thanks to Wikipedia.

robinruth - the preamble tells you all that you need to know.

[turnerjmw]

I found this pretty tough, to be honest. I was probably being a bit thick this week, but I had to cold solve well over half the clues before I could enter more than a few, as most crossing letters could have three possibilities. I was also slow to pick up on the theme. Like midazolam, I felt the jumbling was only done to add another layer of complexity. I'm afraid, robinruth, that the inserted letters do not make extra words, so it's all a bit of a slog.

[emcee]

Hello everyone. I started this in the alehouse last night and cold solved quite a few. I agree with the above that it seems as though it's going to be a slog to the bitter end. Never mind, we've been spoilt with some great puzzles in the last couple of months.

[robinruth]

Thanks, both. Yes - we're slogging! I suppose it was too much to expect wonderful words to appear! Cheers, anyway.

[IntoTheBlue]

Just finished, once I'd worked out the theme the rest of the grid did indeed become a slog. (I was a bit slow getting the theme, I wish I'd got 1 across a lot sooner.)

I also spent an awful long time with 35a picking the right alternative answer...thought I was going to have to take a 50/50 guess.

IntoTheBlue

[nigel2]

35 ac seems to depend on an indirect anagrammatic subtraction for the answer to be understood - which seems somewhat unfair. The random placing of letters in clues made solving more laborious and less satisfying to complete than usual.

[Scorpius]

It was pretty tough, but became a lot easier when the theme became clear. Oddly timed.
I cannot see any thematic justification for the jumbles, which is a weakness in my view. The grid would have been rather more satisfying without.

[perseverer]

Timing probably reflects numbers due next week. Time to dig out calculators.

[robinruth]

We have the theme and the six unclued answers. Sorting out their jumbles is actually helping us to find some of our missing solutions - but this really is hard work! Yes, I too wish we had found 1ac sooner. We were misled by what still seems to be an extraneous word in the clue - I imagine it is there for the surface reading.

[bobbycollins]

Well, I really enjoyed that. The jumbles added some spice to completing the thing.

Agree with robinruth that the unclued lights (albeit jumbled) helped a lot with finishing the grid.

My good mate IntoThe Blue has the advantage over me at 35a since I still don't see the wordplay, but am sure of the correct alternative - that sounds daft, I know.

IntoTheBlue is in the North East today at the football - sorry mate, but I'm screaming for Sunderland.

My final solution was 3d and took nearly an hour to work out - I was totally stuck in the NW corner before seeing it.

Thanks to Nibor for a real challenge. I have a rest next week with the sums puzzle in the offing.

[fancydan]

I have finished the puzzle, but my answer at 38A is not in Chambers !
Have I got it wrong.
Any gentle hint would be appreciated
Cheers

[midazolam]

yes 38 across is definitely in Chambers fancydan

i finished the bottom right hand corner last, only because i had 42 across wrong for some time - fitting the wordplay perfectly

[fancydan]

Thanks midazolam,
I had the first letter wrong.
All done now, but not a wow puzzle.

[turnerjmw]

bobbycollins, as nigel2 suggested, you have to remove a jumbled version of one word to get to the answer. The anagram indicator might not be the most obvious one

[Walterloo]

Yes, pretty hard going this one, as has been mentioned. I got the theme early like others and then spent a long time solving the remaining clues, which I would like to say were of a very high standard. I had an incorrect but justifiable answer at 5d for far too long, which didn't help of course. Also took awhile confirming the wordplay in a few, so a challenge all round. See you next time . . .oh, numbers again, see you in two weeks then.

[bobbycollins]

Thanks, turnerjmw

Got it now - seems rather oblique to me - not sure if it is entirely fair but am open to correction.

bobbycollins

[Cruncher]

Midazolam - was that an intentional red herring in your original posting?!! I had three letters in for 30ac which fitted with the French word you referred to, so made a guess and screwed up my SE corner for quite a while. Silly me...

Still unconvinced by the wordplay to 2dn. Presume the entry is the last four letters of a longer word that is in turn a reference to an archaicism in the clue. One of several clues where I felt I was trying to squeeze the wordplay into the answer.

Spent a while trying to turn the title into a thematic name but gave up on that. Is there any other significance to it beyond alerting solvers to the number of unclued entries I wonder?

[perseverer]

Cruncher - I just saw the answer to 2 down as splitting 1 letter and 3, if you see what I mean.