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Definition is the last word. Usual abbreviation for the first and third words.

Longhare, 33S is two abbreviations replacing a reduced word for 'control' in a word meaning 'random'.

Murky, that may well be true. I thought Nebuchadnezzar’s E grade this month was a bit tougher, but some aren’t. The Listener has been dumbed down so far recently that I’m surprised the number is not in the thousands. And that’s what leads to so many moans when a genuine challenge appears. Whatever the rights and wrongs of your criticisms, and I do agree with some of them, notably 44N, solvers have been led to feel they have a divine right to solve every puzzle.

Mind you, why anyone would waste a stamp at current prices, when the statistics are clearly meaningless as so many people rely on help from here and elsewhere, is beyond me.

Off topic somewhat but as quisling mentioned it, I really enjoyed Nebuchadnezzar’s E-grade puzzle and if anyone here wants a crack at a really tough but fun puzzle, alongside a few other tricky ones, I really recommend Magpie’s December issue which even has an extra puzzle in so you’re getting 7 for the price of 6!

I couldn’t agree more, candledave. A top-class issue

I’m sure no-one will read this, but I need to vent.

Really cross about this one. Spent ages on it and am left with an unfinished grid, but can’t even rely on pattern matching due to the possibility of clashes. I’ve found it almost impossible to see what is going on with the grid, given that clues go in all directions and there are no bars.

And then to top it off, it appears that some clues need multiple letters in one cell! Really can’t countenance this, there’s no indication in the preamble whatsoever that this is necessary. My above complaints I can put down to a hard puzzle (too hard for me), but not giving requisite instructions is beyond the pale.

Hi, Adeano,

No need to apologise. I see that several regulars have identified this as a very difficult puzzle. Looking back over 2022, the only puzzle I gave up on was No. 4717 ("Unruly Characters" by Somniloquist on 25 June 2022), but I managed to finish all of the others by Saturday, and mainly by Friday evening, except for this one. I didn't finish it until Sunday lunchtime, and only by realising that the second sentence of the instruction - "In some cells letters from two or more entries clash . . ." - did not restrict the number of letters from any one of the clashing entries to just a single letter. Once I saw that, trying to fit the entry for 3W into the grid, the penny dropped, and many "clashes" that I'd pencilled in elsewhere turned out not to be clashes after all.

Over the last two or three years, there have been several puzzles involving multiple clashing letters in a single cell, which need to be rearranged into a word that is often replaced by a symbol. For example No. 4644 ("Symbols" by Aedites, on 30 January 2021) involved the sets of clashing letters from the across and down entries leading to the names of the twelve signs of the zodiac , which had to be replaced by the relevant symbols. To be fair, though, in the preamble for that puzzle it's fairly clear that there will be several letters from at least one of the clashing entries in the clashing cell.

So I don't think that the key instruction is missing, it's just (I suspect deliberately) vague.

Thanks for the reply!

Your explanation does make sense, and helps me feel somewhat less cross.

I do think it’s rather unfair to be quite so vague when there’s so much else going on to make it a very difficult puzzle. For instance, the lack of bars combined with the inconsistent directions of entries mean I find it very difficult to see where the individual entries lie, which in turn means I don’t think I’d ever have spotted that trick to make the entries fit.

But hey, I’ll hopefully be better prepared next time!