Listener 4800 - Ready Now By 'Eck

[HawkCrossword]

Tough in the extreme, but very rewarding if that's how you like your puzzles. The combination of altered clues, altered entries, carte blanche grid and truly evil clues throughout made this the hardest Listener for a while. I resigned myself to having to cold solve most of them, but in the end I got grid-filling after around 50%, and eventually made the grid-fill breakthrough.

 

Thanks 'Eck!

[youngoffender]

By 'eck indeed, that was tough! Plenty of cold solving and then much trial and error in an Excel sheet to determine the 'entry methods', but the final reveal was hugely satisfying.

[Cruncher]

Well 48 hours in I reckon I have a complete set of answers which I've jammed together into the grid, a phrase and a bunch of words that are apparently further clues. No idea what happens now. Think I'll sleep on it

[olichant]

What a fantastic puzzle - one of the best.  Worth all the hard effort.  And some really great, tough cluing.  Really enjoyed it - thanks, 'Eck.

[Canary42]

What is the point of this "question"?

Is Eck an Aber?

Or are the responders and OP merely after a spot of self agrandissment?

Or is it spam for the Listener ?

I think we should be told 😀

[HawkCrossword]

Hi Canary42,

I see that since 2009 you've asked 3,122 questions and given  23,082 answers, which is very commendable service to this site. Thank you.

You've also been here long enough and posted enough times to these Listener threads to know that this isn't a straight question and answer, but a watering hole to which tired and emotional (and I choose that phrase wisely) Listener solvers gather to unload after completing a puzzle. Maybe you don't do the puzzle, or maybe you don't like the thread - that's fair enough. But please don't be an asre and spoil it for others.
 

[Keepatit]

Canary42, if you're going to use words like "aggrandisement", at least learn how to spell them. You're just embarrassing yourself. That's double r, double s

[Keepatit]

I do recognise the French spelling, but you can't just use random italics. Shouldn't it be Ecouteur for consistency?

[emcee]

I also wondered about "Aber" -- competition for Uber perhaps?

Still have ten clues to sort out on this monster of a puzzle. The grid is looking a mess but I will persevere!

[u10]

I thought Answerbank was somewhere you came for answers (hence the name) and not a chat room.