Listener 4504: Milky By Malva

[starwalker]

After last week's rather harsh welcome home from holiday (perhaps I should have taken two weeks), this was much smoother and more welcome. An interesting mixture of clues, some less obvious to me than others. The final PDM was a joy. I would recommend this to the less experienced/addicted Listenerites. Thanks Malva.

[jabone]

Very rare for me to be in the Friday club; makes a pleasant change and I enjoyed the puzzle.

[Flocker14]

Some tricky bits in this ( I thought for a while one clue was wrong as happened a few weeks ago), but it all works out very neatly in the end. Most enjoyable! Thanks to Malva.

[Liathach]

I'm afraid I did not experience any PDM since the theme was clear to me from the start, but your comment makes me suspect that I am missing something. And I thought that some of the clues were flabby; I had at least two other redundant words which did not fit any of the substitutions.

[Scorpius]

I began by thinking it was too easy as I had over half the grid filled in under 30 minutes, but there were some trickier clues in the bottom half, and I had to go back and find a couple of missed extra words. Resolving all the thematic material took a bit of time, so in the end it wasn't the walkover it initially appeared to be. Perhaps the thematic clues could have been a touch harder since the easy first one revealed the theme immediately. Still, an enjoyable relief after last week.
Pretty good grid, I thought.

[Scorpius]

I'm a bit surprised your description, "flabby," Liathach. I thought the clues were pretty tightly constructed, with few surface decorators that could be taken as extra words. Initially I had only four extra words and had to backtrack to find the other two.

[emcee]

A much gentler offering than last week's puzzle (which was an unenjoyable slog -- I never thought I'd say that of a numerical!)

I too wondered why the clues were unnumbered as it really wasn't a problem to locate where entries went.

It was an entertaining solve so many thanks to Malva.

[perseverer]

With Malva as setter, you know before you start what the theme is going to be - you may think this is a good thing or a bad thing.
I also didn't find it all that easy overall, and had a bit of a struggle deciding on a couple of the extra words.

[Hagen]

I had the same experience as Scorpius in that the first thematic clue pretty much gave away the theme, but the puzzle was still enjoyable and not too taxing a return to the Listener after a week off. I didn't have too much trouble identifying the extra words, though I can see there could be a number of false candidates resulting from indications of obsolete and dialect words.Thanks, Malva.

[Philoctetes]

Much as everyone else, though I found the thematic clues impenetrable until the end. Then, once I had spotted a potential link between two of the entries, it fell into place rapidly. Nicely balanced, i thought.

[sunny-dave]

Agree with previous posters.

A pleasant way to spend a couple of hours - everything slotted into place in a satisfyingly unequivocal manner - and I learnt something new - which is always good.

Thanks Malva

[upsetter]

We had never encountered this meaning of the 7th word. But it emerged by vis majeure from the BRB. Obviously it is not so recherche, otherwise others would not be noting the early PDM.

[icynorth]

I agree with much of the above. The theme was very accessible, the carte blanche was unnecessary and many clues were deliciously devious. Thanks, Malva!

[olichant]

I enjoyed this. Pleasant respite from the previous week’s puzzle, which I’ve only just managed to slog my way through, having taken many decidedly non-scenic detours on the way.