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I'm with drxx on this. I quite enjoyed the novelty of the crossword part of the puzzle - all four letters - and thought some of the clueing was clever, given that constraint. I can see the attraction of the rest of it (I'm reasonably handy at Sudoku and could have a fair crack at mathematicals but they hold zero actual interest). Listener 'crossword' of the year though? No. For me it's a coding puzzle with a crossword precursor element - 75% end game.

Hints for any of g u h* r n* b* would be much appreciated.

Thanks, granama1 - I agree with your assessment of this week's challenge, and it's good to know I might not be the only disappointed Listener solver when this thing takes the prize next year.
Yes, 4 letter words throughout is certainly a constraint, and it makes the word part of the puzzle rather humdrum - I had this in mind rather than the amount of cold-solving involved (but I'll never be convinced that a lot of cold-solving wasn't necessary in order to fill the grid).

g is in the clue + an extra letter.
u she's a small Scottish siner - both vowels go (one being an extra).
r 3 letter word for '(to) rope' minus the extra - 2 letter trree.
b* exclamation 'that hurts'! minus the first letter + boxer.
n* remove the 'n(ew) from a word in the clue and swap the letters.
h* the longer abbrev for 'second' + depart.

'...but it was a horrible experience for me + pen + paper (and anyone else with a taste for themed crossword puzzles I'm sure).

Well, I'm sure, after solving it and reading other comments, that drxx couldn't be more wrong.

I have eventually got a full grid, all clues successfully parsed (including that b????y Scottish singer), all letters encoded and a 7 word instruction that I don't seem to have to follow? I used a spreadsheet for the grid filling, and considering the number of restarts I needed, it has saved a forest of considerable size being transformed into paper. Certainly a very difficult solve which proved to be a hybrid between a 45% 32 clue cold solve quiz, a 45% logic puzzle and 10% interaction between the two - so I certainly empathise with much of drxx's criticism, but I still feel that Cagey deserves much praise for what is a very difficult PUZZLE.

'...the grid-fill seemed impossible without an additional piece of information from the extra letters (ie, the message has to make sense, resolving one last ambiguity).

I mean, that's tight setting. Squeezing everything out of the puzzle.'

I didn't misunderstand your praise for the setter, but you appear to suggest it's the grid-fill that requires the additional information.
For the 'message to make sense' some letters having questionable codes can be repositioned using alphabetical order a second time. The fact that a final ambiguity is resolved doesn't effect the grid-fill as a whole. For that process to work you'll need the extra letters from the cold-solved clues.
You also appear to have solved most of the clues before starting on the fill - but with hindsight you 'think', 'perhaps' this wasn't necessary, but how can you know this after the fact?
I don't wish to argue over the details - if you believe this is a puzzle without any flaws we can disagree and leave it at that.

Yes, in your world perhaps, nick - and wherever people are gathered in your name (like here, or just about anywhere on the net}.

gitto, between the two of us we've saved the planet - my depleted rainforest has been, thankfully, offset by your expertise.

michpunk - hello, and thanks for offsetting some of my paper mountain too.
I have to go back years to Shark's puzzle for what I think of as an outstanding Listener. A couple of pretty good ones this year - the chess puzzle and the funny noise certain birds make (seized upon by a passing scientist and made famous beyond the author's wildest dreams}. I think it's been a poor year, some of the easy puzzles didn't come up to standard at all (in my opinion).
There's an interesting art work by Joseph Beuys - 'How to explain pictures to a dead hare'. I often feel like a dead hare in the arms of a mathematician on these threads.
By the way, Beuys was thinking of making another work 'How to explain literature to a dead mathematician' unfortunately, the mathematicians all miraculously reanimated when they heard that bird squawking.