Listener 4200, The Missing Vowels Round by Shackleton

[upsetter]

well, that's the PDM and the Antihesis out of the way, now for the clues...

[Texasetes]

Cruciverbalist, do you know whether entry to the CAM crossword is open to all, or alumni only?

The previous issue's winners are alumni, but that may be simply because non-alumni don't read the magazine.

[Cruncher]

Thank you Vetuste. As ever it seems to help to read the preamble carefully....!

[olichant]

I enjoyed this - and relatively straightforward after last week's tour de force (although I'm still hugely annoyed that the wordplay for 11ac refuses to reveal itself). I second the CAM crossword - it is lovely, and I suspect it is open to all even if previous winners happen to have been alumni. At any rate, there is nothing to indicate otherwise...

[sunny-dave]

Easy enough (despatched in a short afternoon).

Very enjoyable - well constructed and a nice puzzle - thanks Shackleton.

[jim360]

I don't feel I have the energy to attempt any more than one of these puzzles a week - listener will do for me! Which is a pity because clearly there are several such crosswords a week and all seem to be worth the trouble...

[Ythelon]

Is there a fellow struggler/lurker for whom membership of the second Friday Club would be an achievement who has time to correspond about progress with Listener puzzles even if that progress, like mine, is at best faltering, and invariably, slow ? Failure to complete, an all too frequent occurrence, is hugely frustrating. To avoid cluttering up the Message Board my email address is [email protected] Thanks in anticipation.

[Walterloo]

No uni for me which is telling because I've still not twigged the antithesis. As stated everything else is done so what's to be written below must be something I've never heard of. Or I'm not thinking straight. Is it literally a word which is means the opposite of the words in set two or the word they describe, where each of set 1 can be found?

[sunny-dave]

Work on a set of antonyms & then google is your friend ...

[Walterloo]

Thanks sunny-dave. I certainly wasn't familiar with the antithesis. Not being a fan of the theme (sorry) and with a lack of knowledge of all things classical (apologies) I was doomed. But I enjoyed this nonetheless and showing the vowels was satisfying.

[the_heisman]

A predictably excellent crossword from Shackleton. Sine Qua Non was my all time favourite and the Hemingway one was way up there. I have no aspirations to join the Friday Club and prefer it to last as long as possible through the week. Its a marathon not a sprint, so to speak.

[contendo]

My computer crashed over the week-end so I had to resort to doing this the old way, relying on Chambers, Bradford and a few other old trusted volumes. Finished the grid, got the two sets of words and the antithesis, which I presume should be in the original language, but I'm blowed if I can see which of the missing vowels should given the connecting word treatment. "Guided by the cell contents"? Hm. The last penny still has to drop.
I think some of the comments here have been a bit blase about the quality of this crossword. Some of the cluing is superb with cunningly disguised misprints in some of the definitions. I especially liked 45dn.

[Cruncher]

Spent a long time convincing myself that my representation is the correct one. It has a clear logic to me but required certain assumptions to be made about the final design that the preamble could have made explicit. Oh well, in the post now

[cross_lover]

Have stared at the grid until I'm blue etc in the face but I can't see where to put the (seemingly) obvious vowels. Heigh ho, another one to file under F for failed again.

[jim360]

You might be able to find their proper place by thinking about what they actually are. Thinking cryptically about the relevant two-word description should help.

[Texasetes]

Cruciverbalist and olichant, thanks for the CAM crossword recommendations; I completed it with a certain amount of deja vu. Although I'm not an alumnus of that particular institution I'll send them my entry regardless and see what happens.

[olichant]

Although am done and dusted (and the answer is in the post) I am still unable to work out the answer to 27d. I'm as sure as I can be that the answer is right, but any (as cryptic as possible) hints to save my sanity would be greatly appreciated. Likewise, the wordplay from 11ac in 4199 is still causing undue misery! I agree with Contendo - some of the clues this week were very fine indeed, and exploited the misprints marvellously.

[sunny-dave]

11ac start from the end and drop chief secret into two four letter words ...