Listener 4326, Coincidence By Sabre

[TheBear69]

I've searched bu apparently there is no Friday club for this very difficult offering by Sabre. I just got 17acr so I've finally finished. Phew! One of the hardest of the year, for sure. Thanks Sabre!

Happy New Year everyone!

[sunny-dave]

Never have I been so glad that I don't submit ... I've solved the clues, had the PDM, slogged through the replacements and am happy that it's done ... the concept that I would now be agonizing over how many angels can dance on a pin-head (and indeed which dance they would be doing) is just too awful for words.

Good luck chaps.

[Cruncher]

What a devious puzzle. I too have been scratching my head over the final form of this one, not least because I think an all-correct year might be at stake. I veer towards a "complete" solution which demonstrates a full solution of the central column otherwise there is no way of knowing which of the alternatives to favour. It does mean taking the "length of grid entries" very literally as a reference to the number of cells rather than the number of letters. An awful lot of work either way. A sting in the tail for 2014. Happy 2015 to all you guys and gals

[UglyUncle]

Jim360, I think you may be alluding to the possibility I raised (albeit in a deliberately opaque way) when I posted at 10:37 yesterday. Of the three options, it's now my favourite: visually precise and leaving nothing to chance. I fear only that it's the result of such a surfeit of lateral thinking that not even Sabre will have thought of it. Will my submission be sui generis - and doomed to fail by dint of being too tricksy by half?

[olichant]

It might be a good idea to set up a thread to discuss all of this explicitly when the solution is published. Cathartic, if nothing else!

[starwalker]

In my years of Listener solving (15 approx), I cannot recall a puzzle that has proved to be so awkward to complete. Even having reached the end, I share the concerns of others that my final grid may not fit the requirements. Oh well, this year's all-correct run ended some time ago. Sabre, as always has provided a hefty workout, for which many thanks.

[Contrarian]

Yes, a complete about turn for me on this one. I now accept the legitimacy of using 'length of grid entries' to refer to the number of cells, and that any apparent contradiction between this and the instruction to replace a letter from each answer before entry into the grid, is better resolved by obeying this latter instruction to the letter (pun intended).

[IainGrace]

Eventually got to the stage of completing about 95% of this and establishing what needed to be done to get to a finish, but no great desire to do the final bits. Over complex, earlier posts suggest trouble/dubiety ahead, and we have no "all correct" to protect. On to 2015...

[crosswhit99]

... I'm just left wondering why the shorter hand starts in the first cell of the middle column rather than ending in the last ?

[EdgeofDarkness]

I enjoyed most of this one, certainly more so than the puzzle that followed. However, clue 25, if Bob Hope is the only Hope - then there is no hope at all. An exemplifier was required and the editorial staff went missing.
Meursault.

[Scorpius]

Crosswhit99, that's what I was getting at in the second paragraph of my Wednesday posting.

Edgeofdarkness, absolutely! I thought it was remiss of the editors to let that clue through.

[sunny-dave]

Which sort of reminded me (can we do jokes in this thread?) :

10 years ago we had Steve Jobs, Bob Hope and Johnny Cash.

Now we have no Jobs, no Hope and no Cash - let's all pray for the continued health of Ed Balls ...