Listener 4062 - Letter Squares by Elap

[Philoctetes]

No - i haven't finished it, so get up off the floor. I just wondered what people approaching it thought of the bit in the preamble "so solvers must deduce how many complete cells each answer occupies" (and the attendant mismatches). Without that it looks quite straightforward

[tristram37]

I'm still struggling with this, though I have completed the grid and sorted the letter values as instructed. Are the last 11 letters of the sequence irrelevant? I can see no meaning to them. Any slight hint as to how to interpret the first 3 letters of the sequence would be very welcome.

[daagg]

Treat them as a word. The list of sorted letters contains two pieces of information (as explained in the preamble) and you need to consider them both. How many letters are there?

[tristram37]

Thank you, daagg. Your hint was brilliant, and so was the crossword!

[Mysterons]

Yes, it's the order of that sequence which is important tristram - you need to convert the grid into something given by the last word of the message using something indicated by the first word of the message.

[Deviant]

Well, despite my pessimism on the 4061 thread, I got through this one without making any mistakes & very impressed with the puzzle after the last step. It's very pleasant to finish a numerical puzzle in one (albeit very extended) go.

[teuchter2]

The penny dropped last night. Brilliant PDM (remind me what this stands for someone) - nearly as good as beating Rangers last Saturday!

[cruciverbali]

Perfectly Delightful Mathematics

[Philoctetes]

Straightforward arithmetic slog here, only saving time towards the last few clues by working out what was going on rather than doing the sums. Not detracting from ELAP, who has created a neat puzzle. Just not overly inspiring. I also look back with fond memories to the mathematical one a few years back about farmers ploughing fields. That required logic and deduction!

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, Philoctetes, I thoroughly endorse your third word - SLOG!

[twoshortplan]

I'm romping through this (well for me anyway). I've got all the top right half completed (above the left-right diagonal) but can't get 13ac to match the down clues. I have started from scratch twice now and end up with same conflict. 2,?,13,2,4 does not give a solution. Can someone please tell me which cell is wrong?

[Mysterons]

The first cell of 13 across contains 25, your other cells are correct tsp

[twoshortplan]

Thanks Mysteron, I had convinced myself that 3dn ended 2,5 and hadn't ever considered 25.