Saturday Times The Listener 4332 Saturday 7 February 2015

[British_Olympics]

Have solved all the clues and entered letters diagonally and 'in the correct order' in most of the checked cells. I assume letters should also be entered diagonally in the first three corner cells to facilitate the flow of the quotation, but I'm not sure how to enter letters in the other unchecked cells, and in the two checked cells in the bottom row which contain duplicate letters. If entered diagonally, then there is obviously a choice of two possible orientations, meaning the number of acceptable grid fills is at least 2 to the power 35 (plus 35) = 34,359,738,403 - surely a record for The Listener !!

[roslyn251254]

the slope of your diagonal will matter in each cell depending on whether you want the 1st letter above the 2nd for the vertical answers and similarly for the across answers. H will not be the same as E or E or H. Only one of
E H H E
combinations will fit your across clue and down clue

[roslyn251254]

Sorry that didn't appear as I typed it.
Diagonally will give 4 possible orientations depending on which letter you write first in the top left corner or top right corner.
e.g. in 5d the H must be in top left with A in bottom right to satisfy perimeter order and order of 5d.

[British_Olympics]

Thanks for your reply Roslyn. My quandary is which orientation to use for the final LS of 5 down, or the final EE of 32d, for example. In the absence of any more specific guidance in the preamble, it looks on the face of it as if 'anything goes', hence the massive number of possible permutations !