Listener 4111: News Quiz by Stan

[Zabadak]

Another relatively gentle start to the week (if I've got it right, that is). I'm not sure the question revealed by the corrected letters is properly answered by the final grid, which is where I have misgivings, but I can't see another way of doing it. The jumbled entries also defy convention in one respect, but then I guess Listeners can do that. I'd be interested to see what the rest of you think!

[tilbee]

Doh ! Just realised I had an incorrect answer crossing 21 ac.Supported by the wordplay, but wrong definition.

[contendo]

Going back about 12 entries I realise I typed 10dn & 31dn when I meant 10ac and 31ac. I suppose necessarily 10ac qualified for the definition initially, but hardly later. In answer to the subsequent query, BRB is big red book, ie Chambers, which doesn't include 31ac.

[dr b]

contendo, re 10a, the later one was like one, anyway. Re 31a, it's like, totally in Chambers Word Wizard as well as the onelook.com dictionaries.

[tilbee]

Contendo - 31ac is in the 11th Edition (2008)

[contendo]

Right, yes, I see it in Chambers now. Don't know how I missed it.

[bobbycollins]

Agreed, pretty straightforward but enjoyable. Some good clues, the large number of misprints in words leading to abbreviations nearly floored me several times. I wonder if 12 across was a deliberate red-herring? I suspect so.

[AndrewG-S]

Fairly gentle but nonetheless enjoyable in my view. Thanks Stan

[silversolver]

By the way, congratulations to Simon Long for beating the record for consecutive successful Listeners - 321 not out is a pretty impressive innings!

[Clamzy]

I was held up quite a long time by 3dn and 6dn . I think this may have been because the corrected letters were in (for me) the difficult part of the question. Or maybe I'm just getting too old for this game:-) Thanks Stan.

[IainGrace]

Agreed pretty straightforward and interesting piece of trivia.

Now back to 4110 where, like others, we think we have the solution but don't quite get how the disparate parts of the theme fit together into a cohesive whole. RuthRobin's suggestion that it can be applied to the title confuses us more.

Still have the endgame to 4109 to solve too, although clearly too late to win the prize and some posts suggest it's not worth the effort anyway?

[contendo]

Finally got there having been held up for a long time over the middle bit of the question where I was expecting something else. It all works out very neatly in the end and there are some very cunning clues.

[Eril]

Clamzy - same here, that part of the phrase (and so the corrected letters and so the real clues) definitely the last to be found
IainGrace - me neither re RR's assertion, so RR would you expect a two letter result from the title

[Ruthrobin]

My comment was simply that the title, too, could be analysed in a similar way but both the original and 'contraction' would have 12 letters. Didn't mean to stress anyone.

[trux]

Late starter having been in Palma de Mallorca all weekend .... Some interesting clueing - largely fair but maybe at edges thereof sometimes : 11D can clearly lead to either valid spelling, for example - and presumably is what caused tilbee's wrong intersection - ... Some of the abbreviations corrected were a bit painful... Chuckled at 12A even if not really acceptable (IMHO) ... Would have been "purer" to the theme if the corrections in 2D and 7D had been the other way around ... A to Q is well-known to hardened quizzers but neat representation in grid. All in all, quite fun - thx Stan !

[trux]

Btw, out of curiosity, does anyone know how many times Simon Long has been selected for a prize in his unbeaten triple century .... ?

[JackDeCrow]

A nice PDM for those like me who didn't previously know the salient facts - and a nice little geographical easter egg towards the centre. All in all, left me smiling - thanks Stan.

[Mysterons]

I'm not sure interchanging 2 and 7 would have been purer to the theme, apart from changing the direction of travel from clockwise to anti-clockwise, as both versions are answered by reading sequentially across the columns. In fact, if one imagines the IDL runs down between the third and fourth columns, then the version presented surely makes better sense ?

[trux]

Rest assured, Mr Mysterons, I did not mean to offend, nor even denigrate ... just that it seems "purer" (in my mind, at least) to the answers ... but it is a trivial point that could, I see, be justified either way ...

[Clamzy]

Trux - I don't know how many times Simon Long has won a prize but I do recall at least one not too long ago. Over time the number of weekly prizes has varied and currently we have three. This makes it difficult to work out (with an average of say 320 correct entries per week) whether he has been lucky to win. I say this with a hint of sour grapes having not won a prize with more correct entries over the years:-(

[Mysterons]

Thanks for the clarification trux - I have no connection with Stan, so no offence taken here. Regarding the Long run, it certainly is impressive, and is of course still in the process of being set, as every correct entry from now will raise the bar for others in the van. I can remember the days when I was chuffed with a run of 10 correct !