Listener 4490 - Rejob By Botox

[tnap]

I came to have a look to see what others thought of this one, but it looks like I'm the first - which must also be a first.

The grid fill for Grid A was a bit of a slog, but I thought there was a nice PDM for Grid B. I found that the title helped me; others may not be so lucky.

[BobHWW]

I thought this was a very nice puzzle. I agree with tnap that the grid fill was quite hard but Grid B and title so obvious after the pdm.

[kdgs2]

I found this about as hard as any numerical as I've ever tried, and considered giving up several times. Thank goodness it's such an unambiguous endgame though. Looking back from the finished grid, it's a masterpiece of construction, and it certainly feels like the bare minimum of crumbs were left for us to start from. Thanks Botox, that was quite a challenge.

[captaincoma]

Excuse me if it's obvious but what does PDM stand for please?

[Garaman]

Penny Dropping Moment. That moment when something clicks.

[BMACMAC]

Like kdgs2 I considered giving up on this one, and still might. The grid fill is much harder to get to grips with than most numericals, and I haven't really found a start point that doesn't seem to require sorting through about 20 alternatives which I'm not prepared to do. Perhaps I'll just get back to watching skiing, snowboarding curling etc. and wait for the published solution to find out what I'm clearly missing.

[lyrabelacqua]

Over the line at last. Almost impossibly hard at the start, then a routine trudge to complete grid A once I started making inroads. Then a long, long grid stare until a pattern was detected. Then another long, long ponder until I stumbled on the encoding method. All done now. Parturiunt montes, I'm afraid.

[hallobilly]

Needs some Excel work to get started on the first two combinations, but then it's a routine test of logic. Endgame is clear and unambiguous, not least because the outcome is unexpected until it appears. Tough but fair - thank you!

[emcee]

I enjoyed this as it was a challenge from the start. Immensely clever for such a tough numerical to require just the use of a calculator without the need to consider tens of possible cases.

Phase I of the operations done, Phase II was the hold-up for me until the PDM. I knew the cells which needed to be transferred pretty much immediately, it was the word entries that caused me to go down blind alleys, as I imagine others here may have done. However, all is completely unambiguous and I wonder in awe at the construction of such a puzzle.

As I've said in the past, it's not the people who complete these who are clever ... it's those who compile them.

Thanks very much to Botox for such an entertaining logical workout.

[olichant]

I agree with emcee. I found the gridfill very difficult indeed - looking back, I made heavy work of it and should have been able to make deductions about relevant properties of at least some of the letters sooner. Then, the penny took a long time to drop, but I'm glad I persevered.

Have no idea how people come up with these puzzles. I need a lie down.

[icynorth]

I found this relatively disappointing. I spotted the cipher immediately, and that took away any revelation there might have been. The numerical was enjoyably difficult to get started, but became rapidly less challenging until the inevitable conclusion.

I don’t think there was any need to provide the title hint. A grid stare would have been justified, and would have made the conclusion so much more enjoyable.
Thanks, Botox.

[Cloverjo]

Lovely puzzle after the tough start. Thank you, Botox.

[crosswhit99]

This really was a brilliant mathematical word puzzle in the true mould of Listener numericals, thank you Botox. Hardly ever being a patron personally, the title hint was the way in to the cipher, having taken a punt at the thematic word from a web search of the type of places that might avoid the missing number. It's also possible to derive the thematic word fairly quickly from the title by slotting the possible letter pairs generated in the required range into wordfinder.

[Philoctetes]

Not the best puzzle to try when down with flu. Very satisfying at the end, especially using the words to correct a poor calculation. Another top rate Listener.

[sunny-dave]

Sheer bloody minded persistence got me there - actually it got much easier after eventually prising open a few of the entry points (which took much longer than I would normally consider sensible).

A very nice finish just about redeemed things, but identifying values for the first eight or ten letters really was a horrid slog.

Thanks Botox (a variant of which word I have muttered plenty of times this evening)

SD

[BMACMAC]

Well, I got there in the end, despite the temptation to give up. My persistence was in part down to the comments in this forum, which persuaded me that it was worth the effort. Quite right too - I was quite euphoric when I got to the end of the Grid A completion, and even more so when my PDM arrived! Thanks, Botox: an ingenious puzzle.