Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

This thread is dedicated solely to ANSWERS, if you want an answer to any clue in the Listener, then please post your request in this thread.

Please do not post lists of answers, they will be deleted.

Answers? Isn't it supposed to be a prize puzzle? What is the point of continuing with it if answers are given away - at least before the expiry date.
Surely people can exchange email addresses (as many do) if they want direct information.
Nudges/hints are fine and you get a lot of very helpful ones on this site. What are we going to get here. An entire list of correct answers? It doesn't make sense.
OK, I don't have to look at it, but a lot of people who have made considerable efforts to solve the thing will be preempted by a lot of others who simply can't be bothered. Oh well.

As this is an answer thread I'll try to answer your questions, aspria -

There are other prize puzzles that people give answers for on this site.

I can't see much difference between asking for an answer privately and it appearing here - solvers wishing to avoid spoilers can easily avoid both.

Hopefully, people will not post lists of answers. That has happened very rarely in the past but just about everyone complained about the few people who posted the lists (it seems to me that some solvers have been using this as a pretext to prevent any answers appearing on any thread).

Feels wrong.

Look at the name of the site you're on Quisling.

...sorry - quixote!

You make a good point, Aspria, but I fear the Internet has long since put paid to the integrity of prize puzzles. There's one guy - a former poster here I think - who publishes his solution to the Listener on Facebook every week. You can get answers to Saturday broadsheet prize puzzles the morning the puzzles are published. My initial reaction when some papers (Guardian, FT) used the coronavirus as a convenient excuse to cancel the prize for the Saturday puzzle was one of annoyance, but is there really any point in continuing with prizes, now we can all get the answers online?

As regards the Listener, Ginge made an excellent point last week, when he wrote There still seems to be some "kudos" in achieving "all correct" status with "Listener" and I'd genuinely be interested in seeing the annual statistics once those "awarded" could "hand over heart" aver "all my own work" for what in the "bigger" scheme of things amounts to ...

I'm not keen on an answers thread, and I'm unlikely to have much to do with it. But I think prize puzzles are somewhat outdated these days, and although I know some solvers treat the Listener statistics as holy writ, it's time to accept that most people here treat these crosswords as a bit of fun without caring about prizes. Crosswords like this are a minority interest, and even though I'd rather not see answers given away, I'll grit my teeth and accept that if it attracts new solvers.

Yes, ginge made some very interesting observations -

'I have also noticed some posters being pilloried for providing answers or parsings in response to specific requests for such! When I see some of the "hints", they're so obvious, I really have to shake my head - does the poster (who may well have asked for hints only) truly derive satisfaction from subsequently "solving" these?'

The hints thread should be sufficient in itself if the balance is right - but objecting to a few answers now and then has resulted in this thread (not the result that was expected, Im sure - hopefully, this 'experiment' will be short-lived).

I’m following all the comments with interest but won’t be replying individually to every post. However, one statement by DRXX stands out :

“Hopefully, people will not post lists of answers”

I can assure you any post containing a list of answers will be deleted and the poster warned about his/her conduct.

Answers should only be given when requested for an individual clue. This thread is not a excuse to post a list of answers so please inform me ASAP if one appears.

I think my query is close enough to possibly revealing an "answer" that I will post it here. Is one of the thematic items in the top row? Is that the sort of thing I'm looking for. (I have the grid completely filled, and the character easily identified.)