Listener 3997

[cruciverbali]

Today's puzzle is Big Holes by Elap - hope you all enjoy getting to the bottom of this one !

[yapisle]

see below

[spiderFreak]

Cheers C!
Hope it's easier than that last one about the 3 square grids. That one had me climbing the walls!

[cluelessJoe]

one minute late c ... thank you for the link anyway. Cheers

[Cruncher]

Straightforward enough with a nice thematic twist. Definitely easier than Odd One Out - less slog....

[Mysterons]

... yes, definitely not as 4517734, but I did have to use 379009 to find the theme word, which I hadn't come across before. Just hope my entry isn't 378193771 !

Thanks for the link as usual C !

[Scorpius]

Having been unsure for a while whether it was just the first 3 words of the hint that were significant, or some of the rest, I didn't spot the theme immediately. After all, the first 3 words are followed by 3 letters that could be a mathematical reference and this distracted me somewhat and took me down blind alleys.

Having looked at the grid in the manner suggested by the hint, with a lot of imagination I was able to make out something. I'm afraid I think it's a ridiculous puzzle. 2 of the "conversions" do not work at all well. It leaves me with the added problem of wondering how I enter my figures in the grid. Entering them as I normally do means the puzzle doesn't work.

[Mysterons]

I think you're correct Scorpius, you must enter all digits exactly as they appear on the calculator screen. I'm farily confident that '4', for example, would be marked wrong.

[Scorpius]

That confirms my view that it's a poor puzzle. To get it to work you have to mix upper case and lower case letters. Anyone entering their digits on a the computer screen in a grid prepared in Word or similar (as many do) could fail to see the theme. If a calculator is intended to be the relevant format, 7 doesn't work (at least not on my calculator). I don't know how much latitude will be allowed, but I ain't impressed by any puzzle that depends on calligraphic idiosyncracies. I've given the thumbs down to two puzzles this year (which, on the whole, has been an excellent year), and this is one of them.

[Deviant]

I sincerely hope that you're wrong there Mysterons - I shall be more than a little p***ed off if I get that marked wrong - getting the code word should surely be more than enough proof that you've understood what's going on.

[Scorpius]

On reflection, I was too harsh in my criticism, and "poor" is far too extreme. It was, after all, a very cleverly constructed puzzle, though I still see some aspects of it as problematic.
I think Deviant can probably relax. There is nothing in the preamble to suggest that the grid MUST be filled in a manner that conforms to the theme, and normally, essential requirements such as this are signalled in The Listener. If 4 is wrong in the submitted grid, then H and g are wrong in the puzzle's title.

The theme word is clear evidence that the theme has been understood.

[Mysterons]

You're probably correct Scorpius, I wasn't meaning to scaremonger, and I'm sure the editors don't want to invite futher controversy !