Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

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 included.
HINTS only, please, no answers.

THE THEME
Requests may be made here for help towards the theme. The 'help' should be in the form of gentle (but useful) additional hints, aiming for a nudge in the right direction. Anything overly revealing spoils the pleasure for other solvers, and is likely to be removed.

Early finishers should avoid any allusions - jocular or otherwise - to the theme.


The Listener is a unique puzzle and deserves to be treated with respect.

A beautifully constructed puzzle

Agree, lovely puzzle. Thank you Craft.
Only downside, you’ve preempted something we were working on! Back to the drawing board as HB would have said.

I also agree, very nice. Thought it was going to be a bit straight forward after flying through the first half, but second half took a fair bit of sorting out. One unresolved parsing for me but I'll leave it til later in the week to enquire about,

Thanks to Craft for a most enjoyable puzzle with so many neat touches and an excellent theme that lends itself readily to this type of barred crossword.

There are still 3 down clues I can't fully parse but it's early days so I'll leave them until later.

There were two clues that had me completely baffled until a sussed the theme. Once that was sorted everything fell into place very neatly and, thankfully, involved a minimal amount of grid staring. Like Brendan there are a few clues that I simply cannot parse, but with so few unches I am relatively assured that my answers are correct. The use of the extra words is very clever. Now onto the I.

All done by 10.30 so definitely an easier one for me - but agree with previous posters - a very enjoyable puzzle, and certainly not as dead simple as I thought at first - it got harder as it went down the grid - but the name, wasan't difficult to find, and although I knew nothing about the theme to start with, a little Google research led to a fascinating piece of history. Thank you, Craft.
Now to find the right-coloured pencil.

A satisfying puzzle. Thank you Craft.

A nice, gentle ease into the new year. Well done, Craft.

Another cheer for Craft from me. Very satisfying and I learned a lot about the theme!