Listener No 4440

[Ruthrobin]

Most enjoyable, thank you, Mr E. A favourite theme of mine!

[AHearer]

Once again, it was the top left corner that slowed me down. I got there by spotting the questioner (despite missing two letters), which led me to the question (a favourite theme of mine, too, Ruthrobin), and the rest fell into place. Thanks, Mr E, I really enjoyed that.

[IainGrace]

Sad news of the death of Michael Polley, a New Statesman setter and Listener debutant as Atlas a few weeks ago.

[Hagen]

Sad news indeed, Iain. I have a completed grid and the theme (a favourite of mine too). Alas I have spent at least as long grid-staring as I have on the rest and got nowhere with the highlighting, though I have a few ideas about what I'm looking for. This is beginning to look like a leporine quest; it seems my telepathic powers are a bit below par this evening!

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, indeed, Mick Polley was a gifted and very gentle person with superb solving skills. He was a classics scholar and teacher who was delighted to see his Listener crossword in print on his birthday - which was to be his last. He knew he had only a short time to live. There was a memorial service to him in Taunton earlier this week.
Mr E, a setter's blog would be welcomed - any chance of one?

[Hagen]

There at last - I was on the right track all along and I probably should have twigged sooner. The prolonged grid-staring rather diluted my enjoyment of this excellent treatment of a lovely theme - my bad, I guess.

[HappyUncle]

All done except for the grid-staring. Very enjoyable, up to that point, and my instinctive answer to the second question is at least partly borne out by something in the grid ... but at the time of writing, it looks like a GWIT and quacks like a GWIT.

[lyrabelacqua]

C- from me, I'm afraid. Too much grid-staring at the end. Until then, great.

[fyellin]

Still in grid staring mode.

Part of me hoped that I would find the remainder of the "post hoc answer". It's certainly one reasonable answer to the new query. Alas, it contains the wrong number of letters.

[Scorpius]

Like some others I have spent almost as long staring at the grid as filling it, and like fyellin I was hoping that the second part of the 'post hoc' answer, or a modification of it, mutatis mutandis, might be found. Given the wacky nature of that answer, the answer to the new question could be just about anything, logical or otherwise. In fact the more logical the answer, the less thematic it would be, so while I have spotted the word to which HappyUncle may be referring, I suspect it's a complete red herring.

I fear this is another ROCKET MAN or HARE puzzle, on both of which I wasted a ridiculous amount of time.

Some of Mr E's previous puzzles have been brilliant (eg Listeners 3721, 3945) but so far I'm finding the endgame of this totally frustrating.

[perseverer]

There is a clue to what to search for, perhaps a bit obscure, though nowhere near as obscure as the wordplay required for one answer.

[Flocker14]

You can't complain about the ending once you finally see it. It's perfectly fair and logical and very clever. Took me ages but it's my obtuseness that's to blame not the puzzle which is absolutely excellent. Many thanks Mr E.

[upsetter]

Our inclination is to be slightly grumpy about the denouement.
But shouldn't we be kicking ourselves rather than the setter?

[starwalker]

Loved the theme and the final answer, but only after a lot of staring. In truth though, I can only blame myself and not the setter. Thanks Mr E.

[Philoctetes]

I found the endgame a lot easier than most of the clues - still haven't parsed many, even knowing which letters go wandering. Perhaps I am more in tune with the circled gentleman than most.

[Scorpius]

I don't agree with Flocker that the ending is logical. It's neither entirely logical nor thematic, though I cannot elaborate on that without giving things away. I agree that it's probably fair, certainly a lot fairer than Rocket Man and the Hare, though I think there is some unintended misdirection to lead solvers astray.
Re perseverer's comment, I cannot imagine anyone seeing it as such until after completing the puzzle.

[fyellin]

Okay. The denouement isn't as awful as I originally thought. I hadn't noticed the shape. I'm almost starting to think it was clever. I still don't see the "hint" alluded to by others.

I still would have liked my answer [see above] better!

[fyellin]

D'oh. Now I see the hint.

[icynorth]

Another MI5 entrance exam this week. I agree the highlighting doesn't match the logic of the theme, but this was an impressive grid and an enjoyable challenge. Thanks, Mr E!

[olichant]

I enjoyed this - I got the endgame fairly quickly although slightly by fluke (of sorts). I imagine it could have taken me a lot longer if it hadn't jumped out at me.

Some really tricky clues, I thought.

[olichant]

...and I've only just seen the hint, which I really should have spotted earlier.