Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/z2vkp04itw1v52subsnga/Squaring-The-Circle-by-Amicus-xx.pdf?rlkey=ko4akm5118k9gmg06gqlyopzk&dl=0

Per granama's suggestion in the L4775 thread, this is a link to the infamous Listener that had a mere 8 correct solutions back in 1994.

I have all the clues solved but the gridfill is still a work in progress.

Thanks Buddy and thanks again to Dodgepot.

I'll hang fire a while on my parsing queries but happy to chip in if I can help with any queries. I think there's a sting in the tail with this one that might explain the low correct solutions count but some of the parsing and unusual words involved won't have helped.

I’m amazed to say I cracked this about 20’ mins ago. I had filled the grid and resolved the jumbles, worked out the theme, but was completely baffled by the encoding. So I had four perimeter cells stubbornly empty yesterday. A brainwave just now led me to the solution. I can imagine the word “ exactly” in the preamble concerning the highlighting might cause contention, but I’m confident of everything else.

The clueing is Sabre-like, tough but not impossible, so it must be the final leap or the highlighting that reduced the number of correct solutions.

Of course pride comes before a fall, so I’ll double check tomorrow that I haven’t overlooked anything …

Well, if we're all there or thereabouts can anyone help parse these first two of my ???s

10a Where in Rome Ginger Russell perhaps concealed plants. (9)
14a Back turned round before South Americans (8)

For 10a I started with the Roman 'where' (3) pace by 2d and, with 6d there was only one real contender but the Ginger and Russell have me stumped.

14a I have a possible parse but appear to have an extra 'L'!

Granama1, look up Ginger in Bradford’s. And the last couplet identifies a Scottish poet. There are alternative spellings for the buck, one with a double letter at the end

If you Google "Buck" and the first 6 letters of the answer, reversed, you get references to a person, so I assumed that was who the clue referred to. Round and South are the usual 1-letters.

Open to other interpretations of those first 6 letters, however.


Latin "where" contained in "a rootstock of ginger" plus the poet Russell's initials for the last 2 letters

Buddy, I parsed it as a buck in its third year reversed around two letter abbrev of before. Definition last two words.

That makes much more sense

6 recaptchas just to post that.....sigh.

Thanks Buddy, I mistyped 'buck' earlier. I'd actually found the person but dismissed the link as waaay too obscure! This was back in '94 and Googling wasn't second nature. I can't imagine how anyone would find it without.

The 'rootstock of ginger' is a complete 'doh!'. That'll teach me not to think I know all the meanings of a common word. 😄