This was tremendous fun from start to finish - from that hilarious title with all it suggests, right to the pdm and lovely endgame. Sheer magic, Flying Tortoise!
Another week and we don't know who set it (no clue on the Times or Listener sites)
This was a fun, enjoyable, clever solve that all fitted together nicely in the end...thanks setter...
Pretty straightforward even in my current befuddled state: the double clues resolve easily enough. I query "our" and "hero" in the rubric, and whether the lower case writing thing...
Sorry for all those that replied to the last thread, but here is another The crux of this one is not to get flustered with all those letters as I did, but it does work out in the end...
Another great puzzle from the mathematical master ! Solved all the down clues first, then the acrosses. Then it was great fun cutting and glueing little "dice" to get the answer - thanks...
Best of luck with this one, everybody. I nearly quit with it being a carte blanche (sort of - at least we have word lengths) with indeterminate numbers of letters to be removed from clues, clashing...
I can't believe I'm the the first to post this week, so will someone tell me where I can find the real thread. Anyway, very enjoyable, and a subject that I have always enjoyed. Thanks Rasputin.
The lack of numbers in the grid didnt hold this puzzle up for long and now having obtained a full grid, the author, birthplace, the removed five letter collection and one of the three novels...
I think I've got there, though held up for a long time in the NW of the grid and an overenthusiastic wrong answer to 1 down in particular. A wrong assumption about probably the most critical missing...
(sorry started on wrong site, apparently) - so repeat here : Well, we had all been moaning that the Big L was getting to be the Big EZ ... not this week, mefears but after a mammoth struggle, have now...
Having struggled to get started, I found the claim with less than half of the grid filled. Now I am struggling again with the final few answers. Lots of fun though. Dammit ! There goes the Z cup again...
For the second week running we have a brilliant new Listener setter (though Shark appears regularly in the IQ, EV and Magpie series) and what impeccable cluing. This was sheer pleasure with pdm...
Back to the relatively easy ones then, though I think the final step's a bit of a swine if the subject's not all that familiar. One of those with a reasonably straightforward grid fill (with one...
Unless I've gone seriously wrong, this easier than it first appears, though I'm still not sure of 15d. The definition seems to be a bit stretched and it's a bit of an exception to one of the rules....
Last puzzle of the year and it is Mango. 2008 was the last time we saw them with the excellent City Tour. This was not as good, but an enjoyable challenge. Shame the whole theme was got very early...
PDM at last! Having huffed and puffed, suddenly it dawned on me what it was all about. Of course, haven't actually finished it yet but wanted to get in early as never started this thread before....
I have been staring at a complete grid for half an hour now and I must be missing the obvious. This was an extremely easy grid fill. I was expecting a tougher challenge with double clues and clashes....