Listener 4158 - Two Little Words by Danda

[starwalker]

Another week, another puzzle, another debut.
Straightforward and fairly easy. Once the phrase is found everything falls neatly.
Thanks D and A (?)

[AndrewG-S]

I am sure the above analysis is perfectly robust, but unfortunatley the assumptions are not sound. For example Mark Whitaker (Ilkley, West Yorkshire) was a winner of Mind the Gap by Dysart 4091 and then also a winner of Table Turning by Kea 4100. So no shortening of odds I am afraid

[tenflags]

Thank you peserverer.. I have put a note in the diary for that.

Alas I do not have the skill that theBear69 evidently has and therefore a mathematical 'toolset' to utilise but generally enjoy the numericals for a change anyway - albeit I tend to rely on logic and often have to trudge through.

Still anticipating a 'word' brute sometime soon which I will be pleased to finish never mind having a chance of being pulled out of the hat.

[trux]

So AG-S, you can now put note in your diary for July 7th and July 28th.

[IainGrace]

Working remotely from California with fewer aids - although this is where the Chambers app comes into its own - but assisted by the odd glass of Zinfandel, even then this was not much of a challenge. Pleasant enough, though.

[Patch49]

I must be unusually lucky then - having won 2 EV, 1 Saturday Times and 1 Crossword Centre (thanks to whoever on this list suggested entering that as I won first time which confounds the statistics) but the Listener prize is still on my Bucket list.

[Ruthrobin]

Patch 49 and anyone else who is still here, this month's Crossword Centre one was recommended to me yesterday and it is a super solve, superbly set by Mango with impeccable cluing. I cannot recommend it highly enough, especially as, compared with the Listener, it is very very easy. You stand an almost six times better chance of winning too, as I happen to know that the record number of entries for the message board is below 100 - compared with the 500 or so Listener average.

[Philoctetes]

Have we all been sitting thumb-twiddling. One of the easiest, quickest Listeners in living memory, and we have passed the 100 contributions mark and still going!

[AndrewG-S]

Yes, quite a mamoth chat this week! Feels like we ought to go for the record on posts whatever that is. I don't recall seeing too many over 120 in any week. This will probably provoke another barrage of analysis on the means/SDs etc. of the number of posts. Whoever does it should also do a regression analysis of number of posts to number of entries - if there is a relationship we could boost the chances of AB contibutors winning.

[AndrewG-S]

129 on Sine Qua Non was most I could see on quick scan

[cruciverbali]

A little way to go yet Andrew:

http://www.theanswerb...uestion1004284-8.html

..and if anyone is at a loose end and hasn't seen it yet, why not take a look at this week's Azed Crossword tonight:

http://image.guardian...11/10/02/2054oct9.pdf

[jim360]

Wow, after seeing all the maths and hearing the stories about nothing from years of entering... I feel bad winning on only my sixth entry or something like that.