Listener 4097

[mullingar]

I am tantalisingly close to only my second ever listener finish! As you can see it's an old one. 18 across Dividing line is base minus unknown in angular unit(9) I have AG-PSOB but as you know these must probably include the letters (DI) from dill and there may be several clashes. I'm also stuck on 23 across Bundled female copper out of office into cells. Quite the reverse (11) I believe this might include the letters CIC for cicely.I have _A_ULAT_ but of course these letters could change. I presume 34 down is OLPE but cannot work out the word play-Half a jug. Most of jug. All of jug and I cannot get anywhere near the two mystery words haviing been given no guidance on how to resolve the clashes. On second thoughts maybe I'm not so close after all. Anyone help?

[perseverer]

18a A word meaning to line, containing a word meaning root or basis (minus the letter in maths used for an unknown), the whole thing being the angular unit. Neither of the two words are particularly common! You're correct about the dill, but there are lots of clashes meaning your checking letters are pretty useless.

23a Again correct about cicely. and your checking letters will help very much this time. Think Hitler/Mussolini ......

OLPE is correct - for jug think of two prisons.

The thematic phrase is from Australia and features a Scotsman and something you would not want to be put on you.

[mullingar]

Thank you perseverer.I now have 23 across (though I was alarmed to see cic appear in the middle of the word-does this mean that di might not be the starting letters of 18 across?)and can see why olpe is correct.. There seems to be only a possible eleven clashes at most and no hint of how they might be resolved. Might it be by finding the letter in between the two possibilities? Is it an anagram with letters repeated?The only word I can find which comes close is in 18ac is dihedral which must be wrong as it's not got enough letters. Any further prompts?

[perseverer]

DI are not at the beginning - the letters to be removed in most cases were not at the beginning. Try googling angular units.

If you can guess the second, 5 letter, word in the thematic phrase - not too difficult - and put that in after 9 question marks in Chambers Word Wizard, or use quinapalus word matcher if you are familiar with that....

[mullingar]

I have the angular units with a little help fom google. Six clashes! I suspect the second mystery word to be curse but i only seem to have 12 clashes! Thanks for your help so far. Can you explain the wordplay of soety?

[mullingar]

I have spotted soc and now understand the wordplay in soety, but the principle behind resolving the clashes still eludes me. Thanks for your help

[perseverer]

There is no principle as such - you simply have to choose one letter where there is a clash. There are 11 clashes, which with 3 interspersed unchecked letters give the answer you want. Curse is correct. Try what I suggested before with Word Wzard or Quinapalus

[mullingar]

aaah. Many thanks for your consideration and your introduction to word wizard

[WessexGirl]

I too (being a complete listener novice) have almost finished this, with one answer still eluding me. I seem to have one half herb remaining (the three letters deducted from 39ac) but cannot for the life of me find the rest of the word in the down clues.
The three letters I have would make the name of a herb, but require 5 letters to finish the word. Or they could take another 3 letters to make a descriptive word linked to of the 4-letter herbs.
All the other herbs were split 50/50 in terms of letters between across and down clues. Is this one different from all the others? Any help greatly appreciated.

[WessexGirl]

Sorry, I meant 'linked to ONE of the 4-letter herbs'.

[perseverer]

WessexGirl - the herb you want does have six letters and from what you say it looks like you have the first three letters correct. If you have a Chambers dictionary, then a quick search with your three letters should get you the word, which is an obsolete Scottish version of the 8 letter herb you have in mind (I think!) You should then be able to find the extra letters in a down clue quite easily. These do look as if they are an essential part of the clue, but can be removed and the clue still works.

If you don't have Chambers (or Bradford's Crossword Dictionary) you may well struggle to identify the herb -Googling it does not readily find it. If necessary I can tell you in which down clue to look.


Mullingar - glad you got there. Word Wizard can be very useful - tho' some purists prefer not to use on-line aids. Beware - Listener solving can become addictive! If you are going to persist and don't mind using the net, then have a look at quinapalus.com/matcher.html which provides a number of useful aids, including anagrams, misprints etc. (Real experts would know how to post that as a link!)

[WessexGirl]

Perserverer - thank you so much. I don't have Chambers or Bradford but have now found my last herb. I could see a good possibility for the other 3 letters, so I googled the combined letters followed by the more common name for the herb and it came up on a scrabble website. Your help is much appreciated.