Listener 4495: An Exchange Of Letters By Harribobs

[kdgs2]

A clever treatment of, for me, an unfamiliar theme. It's scarcely possible to believe that the letter changes in the grid can exist and give the required text. I really liked several of the across exchanges, 40a in particular, and 23d is just exquisite.

[Flocker14]

Stumbling on the Quotation enabled me to work backwards and insert the changed letters. Tough in places but always fair and lucid: a quintessential Listener puzzle. Many thanks to Harribobs.

[12barblues]

Bit of a slog really, but always clear what was needed. Agree with kdgs2 about clever treatment but it won’t live on in the mind for very long. Sorry

[s_pugh]

Fully agree Flocker - I only got my last two answers by working backwards, but at least it was a totally unambiguous endgame. Hell of a quotation source - glad I don't have to commit that one to memory! ;¬) Thanks Harribobs.

[upsetter]

Great fun and challenging to the end because of 19a.

[starwalker]

Certainly a feat of construction, with some tricky clues - 19a being one of them. It seems that back-solving is the favoured way to complete this. Thanks Harribobs.

[Scorpius]

I found this very easy to begin with but then it became steadily trickier as I hit more clashes. I also engaged in back-solving from the filled or nearly-filled grid. There are still three clues I haven't fully parsed.

A superb grid and some excellent clues with some really fine misprints.

[sunny-dave]

An 'old-school' Listener, I think - nothing tricksy to ferret out, just a good set of clues (with some very hard ones in there, too) and clear instructions about what to do.

Even after I found the quote (and hence the substituting letters) it still wasn't a cake-walk to finish the grid - the last two or three took quite a while to parse and be confident of.

Thanks Harribobs - an excellent puzzle - and a big smile for the clue for 20ac.

[icynorth]

It’s all been said. A truly astonishing construction, and some deliciously obscure words. Thanks, Harribobs. I really enjoyed it.

[HappyUncle]

I reached a point where I was completely stuck and had to use the internet to find the obscure source, working from the majority of the extra across letters. Was that cheating? Probably not, but it felt like it.

I do agree though about the astonishing number of words for which substitutions existed, especially the longer ones. How would you even know where to start putting such a tour de force together. One minor quibble: is 25dn really a viable word? Isn't it comparable with 'very unique'?

[perseverer]

25d is accepted by the Chambers app. I suppose you could apply it to the Milton meaning given.

[Alekhine]

Yes, 25D jarred with me a bit too. I also felt uneasy with the clue for 1D ... and is everyone cool with the parsing of 32A?

Enjoyable stuff nonetheless. And, yes, an amazing piece of construction.

[kdgs2]

Alekhine, I'm happy with the parsing of 32A - I agree that 1D is quite awkward.

[Philoctetes]

May I ask an off-topic question, please? If one is lucky enough to win another dictionary, can one specify alternatives? If so, how? thanks

[icynorth]

Hi Philoctetes.

Yes, there’s an email address on the website you can use to request an alternative prize (there are a few alternatives including Chambers Thesaurus, Crossword Companion and Brewer’s, if they haven’t changed recently. The editor will reply asking you to select one.

[Scorpius]

I agree with you, Alekhine, that 1d and 32a are questionable. 1d strikes me as over-contrived, as this type of clue often is, and I don't really think it's very accurate. It should least end with a question mark because it seems a rather narrow example. In the case of 32a I just don't think the cryptic grammar works, though I can't be specific without breaching forum rules. For an analogy, imagine giving instructions to assemble some materials to make something. Surely if the instructions followed the grammatical pattern here, the assembler would come unstuck.

Those were my only quibbles in an excellent set of clues, and I often have one or two minor quibbles.

[olichant]

Excellent puzzle. I can't imagine how fiddly it must have been to put together that grid. And it's always nice to be introduced to something new, too.

[Hagen]

When I started this it looked like it would be more of a slog than a T20 match, but my fears were groundless as it all fell together nicely. Like others here I worked backwards from the quotation; I'm not sure I would have been able to solve it otherwise.

I agree with those who said that this was an old school Listener, and it was none the worse for it. I'm always grateful to know what I'm supposed to be doing!