Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

Jif73, glad that was of use. Yes, you're right about the colourful bit.

Several times I felt like giving up on this one, but persistence paid off in the end! Once I got the theme (after solving all the clues somehow) the title was in easy reach.

I'm really struggling with this one, considerably more than last week. I have a little under half the grid filled but I feel pretty stuck at this point. This is my third attempt at the Listener so I suppose this is giving me a better sense of how challenging it tends to be.

There are many questions I could ask about but I'll just pick one for now. I think I understand the nature of the words being added/removed by the unscrupulous 1ac, whose identity I also believe I've determined.

For this particular sanity check I'm looking for, I have 11a ("High-living ape drops vital weight before Etna erupts (7)") filled, with the definition being the beginning of the clue. I think 11a also has an extra word, which I suspect might correspond to 16d ("In some places, one short wader to a man (4, two words)")?

Based on all of that I was hoping to solve 11d ("Bleat coming from heads of many African animals (7)"), which must need an extra word from somewhere, but I'm not sure where, so I thought I'd try and reverse engineer a full fill based on what seems like pretty straightforward wordplay that I think is defined by the beginning of this clue. However, based on that wordplay and the cross I have from 11d, I just can't find anything that fits the 11d grid space.

Sorry for the very long post, but is it possible I've gone wrong somewhere along this path, which is preventing me from solving this clue? Or am I simply missing something in the solving of it?

Thanks much!

Hi Chris,

I wouldn't be too disheartened, The Listener is notoriously difficult and, as this is only you 3rd one, I'd say you're doing very well.

11a - Yes, to all your questions - it has an extra word that pairs with 16d.

11d - The definition of the grid entry is defined by the extra word in 4d and the original shorter answer is defined by the first word.

Got it, thanks much brendan! Glad I was at least on the right track.

I'll refrain from immediately asking more questions, hopefully having a few more crosses will allow for some progress...

Apologies, but I'm back with another question. I thought I had some fill for 31d on the following basis, which I now think must be wrong:

- I had an answer for 31d ("Prepare dish of skewered meat, served up without starter (4)") based on a definition of the beginning of the clue AFTER having removed a word, which I thought served as the definition for 18d ("Rent force elevated with money (7)"), although I didn't have the wordplay for that quite figured out.

- However, combined with my answers for 27d and 33d, this 31d answer made the 35a fill seem basically impossible. After pondering 35a ("Live element (5)") for absolutely ages, I have a new fill answer based on using a word from 22a ("Hard broom an element of satire (5)").

- This seems to fit the theme better than my previous situation, but now I have no idea what to make of 31d, which according to Chambers has only a single possible answer, given only the first letter remains unfilled. But I can't find any way to make that word work with the wordplay or any potential definition.


Separately, I am utterly baffled by 19a ("Siri, what's the source of this throb? (4)". I have the first three letters filled with crosses, and based on the wordplay, the fourth letter seems like the most easily-determined part of the answer—and that would result in a clear match between answer and definition, with no word added or removed, and no extraneous thematic material. But I just can't for the life of my figure out what wordplay gets to those first three letters—I must be missing what "Siri" is doing somehow.


Thanks again for any help!

ChrisRemo, if you check the definitions for the the first word of the 19 A clue and the first three letters of the entry, you'll discover they are synonyms.

I must be missing something, then--my Chambers has only a single word as the definition for the first word of 19a; it's not the same letter count, and I can't find any way to make it a synonym for what I have in the grid.

ChrisRemo, maybe you don't have the same as me?! I've checked Chambers - there's one definition for the first word of the clue, and that matches up with the third definition/headword of the first three letters in the grid entry. The 'source of this' gives the last letter, and my word works as 'throb'.

Ahh, I've found it--thank you much for your patience and further reply.