Listener 4203

[Philoctetes]

Well no one seems to have noticed it was going to be a numerical. And i see that someone by the name of "Zabadak" has already commented on the Crossword Club site in a somewhat Z-Cup winning fashion. Obviously inspired by the Games and wants his cup back.

[Postigod]

Logophile - either my Australian vocab is lacking, or I suspect you may want to revist 10?

Thought this was an excellent numerical - I found the title about half way through but tried to see if it was possible to solve all the algebra without knowing the novel (bar the last "choice" which is forced by the title). However gave up with about half the letters solved "cold" - would be interested to know if anyone managed to get further than this before backfilling from the novel?

[logophile]

Hi Postigod - not sure how '7' your Aussie vocab is, but 10's position in the alphabet = H

[jim360]

I suspect it's possible, Postigod, but yes, I guessed at the title and then used to confirm later ideas, so it was influential in persuading me to continue whenever I hit a snag (which was often). Maybe I'll get around to writing up a full solution without reference to the title but it would run to a few pages so might not bother after all.

I also don't get all this aussie vocab stuff.

[BlackHugh]

I think it is possible to have a correct grid with Logophile's Aussie greeting as 7-10 but the misprints wouldn't conform to the pre-amble at 27.

[BlackHugh]

Sorry - forgot to add: I'm still not clear about the title. Would it help if I had actually read the novel?

[Cloverjo]

BlackHugh, I don't know anything about the novel, but my first thought on seeing the puzzle's title was that it was a spoonerism.

I'm glad I carried on with trying this puzzle. I didn't think I'd get there. I hate giving up on the numericals.

[logophile]

Apologies Postigod and thanks to Blackhugh - I had interchanged values for P and Y, though as you say it doesn't affect the grid. I assumed the puzzle's title was a paraphrase of the novel title when 3=17 and 25=3.

[Cruncher]

I didn't get the novel title until I had about a dozen letters and about half the grid filled. It certainly helped to speed the endgame but I suspect this was all doable, albeit very slowly, by logic and ingenuity. I used pencil and paper and and a very simply calculator to help ensure I didn't make a mess of any multiplications or divisions and that was all. But very slow progress. Glad that's over for another few months.
On a slightly grumpy note I did feel that some of the posts on this one were unusually explicit, either hinting at or pretty much spelling out some of the letter values. I appreciate that these numerical puzzles are outside the box for a lot of solvers but if you can't stand the heat....

[Jofuonee]

This is my first attempt at a listener xword, and I'm only trying it cos it's a number puzzle :)
I've only found 1 way in(18). And I've got 26 squares filles in and know 8 number/letters. Absolutely no idea what the novel title is. But I seem to have run out of a next set of clues to try.

One thing does puzzle me, and that is that all the clues are written in alphabetical order (except where powers prevent it), except for 2D, which could have been written k+or and kept in line with alphabetical order.

But its been good fun so far. What's the "brb"? No idea about the Aussie comments.

[BlackHugh]

Jofuonee - stick at it - it's a great puzzle.
brb = Big Red Book = Chambers dictionary (necessary to solve the normal Listeners).

[Oyler]

Jofuonee : it is convention in puzzles that adopt this style of cluing that algebraic expressions are written in alphabetical order unless they spell out proper words. I didn't get the title until just before the end. I had all cells filled in bar about 5.

[Staurologist]

Late as ever in starting this, I made error after error and had to return to the start repeatedly. However, I finally got the hang of it. On the other hand, I was very lucky in finding the third and sixth misprints quite early on, making the title obvious. Even so, that didn't help me as much as I had expected.

This clever innovation opens the door to other forms of numericals. I imagine that even now Hedgehog and Oyler are working on wrong-number (or should that be wrong-letter?) numericals, cartes blanches, and Playfairs with alphanumeric codes (as previously done by Corylus) using some significant number, such as 1/7 to six decimal places. Bring them on, I say >:)

[Alekhine]

Didn't get much time on this earlier in the week and found it a real tussle once I started. I'm usually OK on the numericals, but this was tough.

A new candidate for my all-time favourite clue, though ...25D. A single letter ... and that is a misprint. Wonderful!

[logophile]

... on the other hand Alekhine, Hedgehog did have 25 to choose from, so it really should have been good !

[Jofuonee]

Good news and bad news :). I've got all but 2letters of the novel title, but I appear to have multiple solutions available for H+N, and conversely no solution for a different longer clue. Bizarrely, I can't get a 'correct' answer for the awesome clue. Anyone willing to answer a couple of questions about it? Bearing in mind the point above on explicitness?

[jim360]

Jofuonee - send me an email and I can answer your questions there - [email protected].

[borealis]

Eight days, but what a wonderful puzzle. Not sure if I'd've got there at all without some reverse engineering. I'm usually OK with numericals but this was the hardest of the year so far for me. Many, many thanks Hedgehog.