Listener No 4424: Fieldwork By Ferret

[AHearer]

I was a bit later than usual getting started (shopping -- AARGH!) so was glad to find a reasonably straightforward puzzle from Ferret. Thank you, that was fun.

[starwalker]

When I saw that the setter was Ferret, I immediately thought that I had lost my weekend. Delighted to be proved wrong. Thank you Ferret for the amusement, and I hope that this will encourage others.

[upsetter]

A perfectly agreeable Friday evening's entertainment and a good introduction for a newcomer.

[Ruthrobin]

I have loved the totally unambiguous preamble and clues. I thought this was a really polished compilation and have enjoyed every minute of the solve including the entertaining end game. Many thanks Ferret.

[Aloysius535]

A bit too easy for a Listener. Clues were relatively simple. Although I did have an alternative theme in mind right up until the final manipulation.

[Encota]

Gentle and accurate. Thanks Ferret!

[Hagen]

I agree that this was great fun. For once I hit on the theme quite quickly so was able to enjoy Ferret's excellent treatment of it and deal with the neat and unambiguous endgame. This probably will be too easy for some, but defo not for me.

FWIW, I think Ruthrobin's post is the loveliest appreciation of a Listener puzzle I have seen for a long time.

[fyellin]

Those of us in the US thank you, Ferret, for leaving our holiday weekend free.

Am I the only one bothered by word Y? I have no problem calling the grid modification "Y". I'm less happy about using that to refer to the entry modification. Am I being too picky?

[IainGrace]

Good fun. Doubtless using a mix of inspiration and luck, though, we had ascertained the theme within the first few minutes. Would have been a rare early Friday evening solve for us, had we not had to go and do other things. Very neat concept and construction. Thanks, Ferret.

[s_pugh]

Very neat but although I could see what was happening and what I needed to do it took me almost as long to see the theme words as it took to solve all the clues! I wonder if you have the right theme Fyellin as both X and Y make perfect sense? Thanks Ferret - had me guessing at the end there!

[olichant]

Loved it, and agree with Hagan (as I generally do).

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. It may be a trite comment, but with all the strange things that are going on in the world, the Listener is a wonderfully civilised, steadying and happy high-point of my week.

[Cruncher]

A perfectly formed little puzzle. Very nice

[Scorpius]

Probably one of the easiest puzzles this year, but I don't agree with Aloysius535 that it's too easy. As the Listener Notes for Setters make clear, the essence of a good Listener is elegance, not difficulty per se, and this puzzle is elegant in a number of ways, not least in the clueing (and 14a was far from easy).
I thought I was going to take ages coming up with the phrase since a multitude of possibilities suggested themselves, but a close look at the grid after a meal revealed the solution.

[HappyUncle]

It's all been said. Although it didn't take long to solve, that was entirely beside the point, as there was so much to admire and enjoy. It's always very satisfying when the answers that have to be modified end up as real words. This was one of those puzzles that leave you thinking, 'All's well with the world after all'.

[icynorth]

Neat puzzle, thanks Ferret!

Yes, it wasn't difficult, but the entry gimmicks would have made this almost impossible with tough clues, I'm sure.

[IainGrace]

Anyone seeking a tougher challenge this week might wish to try the Inquisitor.

[greenfarmroad]

For the first time ever I have completed two Times Listeners in a row and thought 4424 Fieldwork was most enjoyable. More importantly it was just the right level. I recognise that I am firmly in the second or third division and would request the following: first that setters make the clues fairly straightforwardly cryptic (about the level of AZED); secondly that the first division solvers hide their occasional contempt about us mere mortals. It is not very nice, after you have struggled for several days and often failed, to read a post that says it was a bore. It s a bit like those dreadful Christmas letters where the sender chooses to draw the world’s attention to the cleverness of his family members.

But thank you Ferret from this solver in an agricultural area. I couldn’t understand how the definition to 14 across produced the answer. Is there meaning to Buff I couldn’t find?

[perseverer]

The Listener crossword aims to be on average the most difficult of the crosswords published in the papers. The level of difficulty will vary but most weeks clues are likely to be difficult.
A lot of the contibutors here are expert. Some are setters themselves. In general they are looking for a challenge. Having said that we do sometimes seem rather smug,
To do the Listener you really need access to the Chambers Dictionary, the Big Red Book, BRB. On this site we try not to give anything away (another bone of contention with some) but if you think of what, say, a computer buff is that might lead you to the answer.
Finally, if the normal pattern applies, this week's puzzle will be numerical.

[greenfarmroad]

Thank you Perserverer for this courteous and considerate reply

[PapaBear]

fyellin, I see what you're objecting to, I think, although I hadn't thought of it prior to reading your post. Word Y (or forms of it) is used fairly commonly in clues to indicate a different kind of modification. But the modification used here conforms to its meaning in Chambers, so I think it's OK.

[fyellin]

Now that the answer is out. My concern was that to me, rotation means that word "ABCDE" becomes "BCDEA" or "EABCD". I'm not sure that I've seen "rotation" mean "reversal", but maybe I just wasn't paying attention.

I also flirted with the idea of "crop circle", but rejected it for the reasons given by the setter in his setter's blog: "apply circle to answer" doesn't really parse, and the word "fallow" hints at crop rotation.