Listener 4360 What A Turn-Up! By Ioa

[trux]

Great fun all the way through. Required only elementary number-crunching so numerophobes should not be put off. And a very neat and satisfyingly unambiguous ending, so thanks all round to IOA for a really fun puzzle. Shame about the cricket.

[twoshortplan]

This looks to be an interesting puzzle. I started with 6d & 16d giving three possible solutions for each which gave 10a also with three possibles. But then find that the matching three possibles for 18ac can all be a product of 2 primes. What am I missing?

[BMACMAC]

Well, twoshortplan, I don't think this thread is supposed to be used for hints, so I'm reluctant to give too much away. I think, you could be misinterpreting what the clue to 18ac means: one of the solutions has just two prime factors, repeated more than once, which is not the same thing as prime * prime.

[twoshortplan]

OK thanks, just seen my silly mistake.

[Cagey]

Only managed to tackle last night, after weekend of camping. I enjoyed doing this one. Nice logical path. I can see a second (less well formed, but equally appropriate) answer for the ending. Was glad for the comment about location in the blurb. Thanks IOA.

[IainGrace]

Not fans of numericals but may attempt this, given comments. Not clear on the symmetry, though. Some digits we can understand, e.g. 8, 9 etc., but what for instance would be the symmetrical partner at 19ac if 7 ac were 15743, say? Asking this question in open forum wouldn't appear to transgress AB Listener rules. Thanks.

[BMACMAC]

IainGrace,
Your question is key to the whole puzzle: clearly some digits are allowable and others are not and must be avoided - which limits the possible answers to the point where a unique solution arises. To see which digits are valid after a 180 degree rotation, you just have to look at the digits shown to the right of the grid upside down to see how they appear. However, if you read through the other comments in this forum, you'll see mention of the "1 controversy" meaning that this character is the one where there is doubt about its validity.

[IainGrace]

Thanks, BMACMAC.

[olichant]

Well, I struggled there with just my phone's calculator and a lot of paper in the middle of nowhere. As with most numericals, it got easier as it progressed. I enjoyed it - thanks IOA. I don't much mind the controversy mentioned above as I think it was clear what was intended. I agree one of the clues was superfluous, although I obviously get why it was included in the way it was.

[jim360]

A bit of an odd one, I thought. Took about an hour to get my head around how to interpret the clues, and about 20 minutes after that to reach a filled grid. Endgame kind of nice, and better than the feared "5318008" or some such.