Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

An early post today, in view of last week's technical problems. Many of us won't see the puzzle until tomorrow, but there will be Friday afternoon solvers.

THE CLUES
Requests for help should normally include the clue itself, the number of letters in the answer, and details of any you already have. Any special instructions or additional information should be given.
NB - Hints only, please, no answers.

THE THEME
Requests may be made here for GENTLE NUDGES only towards the theme. If responding, try to give enough to help without revealing too much. Please do not reveal the theme under any circumstances.

The Listener is a unique puzzle, and should be treated with respect.

The lack of comment seems to support my decision to save ink and a sheet of A4 by not printing out. I have cold solved quite a few, but not enough to give me any real hope of making progress.

Probably a wise move, Bobby. This is pretty difficult as Listeners go; at least a D if it was in Magpie. I cold solved about 35 before I entered anything (probably stupidity on my part). Chewy and unusual clues, and not easy to find a way in given the cells with two letters. And the endgame left me cold, but maybe that's just me. Definitely a marmite puzzle, though. Some will love it, others will wonder why they bothered

Thanks for the confirmation, quisling. I am way behind with Magpie, so I shall eke out my weekend puzzling with some of those.

I think this is the most joyless listener I've ever done - I've gone through so many reprints to arrive at what (to me, at least) is a waste of paper anyway. Nasty brutish and short on any redeeming features at all.

I am unable to log in to the website on my device today to download the puzzle. In view of all the comments to date perhaps I am the lucky one.

I'm off to the shop for The I.
I cold-solved 5 in 2 hrs. Hope the setter is happy with a puzzle that is virtually unsolvable.

Well, I thought this was brilliant. Disclaimer: I always solve in a spreadsheet, and using the power of Excel to complete the instruction from the extras probably reduced the time spent on that step by a factor of 10. Still, worth persevering in my view (your mileage may vary).

I'm not giving up yet. I have 24 answers but no idea yet how to enter any of them. Assuming the four 3-letter answers go in where you'd expect the trouble immediately starts wth having six 4-letter places to fit four 4-letter answers. And so it goes on...

Yes, the 4s interact well - as do the 3s with some of the 5s.