Listener 4537: Rollerball

[Encota]

Another great puzzle from the Ace of Hearts. I usually find this type of circular puzzle tricky and this one was no exception. A very nice theme very well executed - many thanks!

[starwalker]

I thought that I had discovered an easy way into this puzzle - and then I had to think again. Very nice how it all came together in the end. Thanks Ace of Hearts.

[sunny-dave]

A good solid puzzle, which certainly didn't yield its secrets easily - even my last two or three radials took a while to nail down.

A neat theme, no boring grid staring, and some nice surface reading for the clues too - another good one for early 2019.

Thanks Ace of Hearts.

[Hagen]

I struggled with this. I find it hard to keep track of what's going on in circular grids, and entries with latent letters and unknown starting points complicate things even more. Thank goodness there were no jumbles!

A very respectable contribution from The Ace of Hearts, but by no means my favourite type of puzzle.

[12barblues]

Well, that’s all the thematic stuff done, just the last 25 clues to do now! .... a bit later, done. What I think of as a ‘classic’ puzzle in that the thematic content and clues assist each other. If anything the theme revealed itself too quickly but that still left a fair bit of work to complete the grid.

[Flocker14]

Most enjoyable although some solvers may find it a slog. It was a bit like mountaineering - patient progress; inching one's way towards the summit - rather than a lot of dramatic revelations. The theme is cleverly thought out although not really integral in itself to the majority of the solve. Some very good, tough clues (which have stretched my vocabulary at times) and very satisfying indeed to find it all adding up nicely in the end. Many thanks to The Ace of Hearts.

[upsetter]

An excellent and very testing crossword.

Thanks Rollerball.

[upsetter]

Correction - Thanks Ace of Hearts

I am suffering from flu.

[emcee]

A solid puzzle which gave up its secrets steadily. Some of the clues were tough.

Fortunately the "checking" in radials 3, 6 and 7 was more generous than normal otherwise solving neighbouring clues would have been extremely difficult.

Thanks, Ace of Hearts. An enjoyable solve.

[emcee]

... I meant 'rings' not 'radials'. And I can't even blame it on 'flu!

[contendo]

Almost there after a long but enjoyable struggle. But is it really OK for over 60% of the letters in the grid to be unchecked (or am I missing something?)

[sunny-dave]

An interesting point, Contendo - actually I think there are 64 unchecked cells (out of 178) - if you allow 'checking' to include cells which are shared beteween radials and count the 6 asterisked cells as checked.

Still a high proportion at 36% - and it certainly must have required a high degree of care to ensure only one possible entry in each unchecked cell.

[Hagen]

Contendo, I thought the same until far too late into the solve. That's because I failed to make use of some of the shared letters in the third ring. For example, I entered the answer to radial 4 in a straight line, so didn't notice for a long time that the letter in ring 3 checked with radials 5 and 6. My mistake, obviously, and perhaps my unenthusiastic previous response was unfairly influenced by this. I still find that it's much harder to "keep your place" in circular grids than normal ones, which is why I'm not all that keen on them unless there are clued answers in several of the rings. Perhaps I'll get used to them one day!

[contendo]

Yes, Sunny-Dave & Hagen, I hadn't counted letters shared by radials, but I don't agree that the asterisked letters should count as being checked. I think we could have expected another ring to have given real words. Crawled over the line at last. Not quite in the Friday league. Hagen, my spaniel looks just like you. I wonder if you're as wayward as she is.

[Hagen]

Not my spaniel but he belonged to family and sadly is no more. He was a very smart old fellow; if ever he'd started solving Listeners he'd have been far better at tit than I am!

[Hagen]

Should be "at it" of course...

[Scorpius]

I think it's a very well assembled puzzle with an interesting sequence of thematic connections and some excellent clues. Like others I did find it tough to complete the last few entries.

I don't see the problem with checking that others have raised. Every radial entry is seven letters, with two unchecked cells in the second and fourth rings, which is standard checking for seven-letter entries, roughly 71.5%. It's misleading to count the number of cells. The same statistic would result from assuming a total of 245 cells (7 rings of 35 cells) of which 70 are unchecked. The wider cells distort the true picture. The perimeter entries and those for Ring 5 are fully checked, so the overall checking for the entry letters in the grid is 79.6% - fairly typical for a Listener.

[olichant]

Neat puzzle. I found the last few entries really tough, but all fair and square. It was an enjoyable solve.

[Pivert]

Why does answer 3 not fit with the definition in the fifth ring ? Pivert

[Pivert]

It did go after all Pivert