Happy 4500th everyone. I’m nowhere near finished yet, but thought to step in to say hello. In some ways this may be entry level, but there are an awful lot of obscure (non) words in what i have so far. e.g. my 16 is clearly correct but one couldn’t reasonably expect a n00b to know the word. One would not spend time doing this if it were not enjoyable: some people spend all day fishing, some people enjoy dancing until 3am, others like nothing more than climbing up some dirty-great mountain; we play the Listener Crossword and that can be cherished for itself.
Finished but for one thing - 5a. It's the "talking" part of the wordplay that eludes me. I've tried gas, gab, say, jaw, yak and yap but nothing seems to give a certain type of test.
I don't think this was as easy as some people are suggesting.
After this rather introspective thread so far, please could I have help with the message? I've shaded in 5 sets of diagonal letters, which seem to make relevant words, but this only gives me 27 cells. I'm finding the prescription for getting the message letters very convoluted, and haven't made much progress- does it start WORD?
I, for one, am delighted with this puzzle, being a massive fan. I hope Kea is a fan too. Once I got the message I knew instantly what to highlight. Others may have to Google it.
An easy puzzle, but I loved it. Thanks Kea.