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. Listener puzzles sometimes have special instructions or additional information, any such 'stuff' should be included.
Hints only, please, no answers.

The theme...
Requests for help with the theme may also be made here. The ideal is for the help to be just a nudge, a pointer in the right direction - and certainly not anything that would spoil the puzzle for other solvers. Any posts which reveal too much thematic information are likely to be removed.

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

This is, I feel, the least demanding puzzle I've seen since I started attempting The Listener two and a half years ago. All done in less than an hour

But after last week's a quickie was very welcome. This idea appeared elsewhere not long ago, but I think the construction here is much more appropriate to the urtext

Yes, a new personal best for me too. Whilst it is nice to have a less demanding puzzle occasionally, this really was too easy, with many obvious anagrams, and the word search was straightforward.

By definition, there will always be an "easiest Listener ever" (until an easier one comes along) and a "hardest Listener ever" (until a harder one comes along). So it goes. I suppose we could, for the benefit of future setters, try to come up with a document that explains "just how hard a Listener should be", but that seems like a lot of work. I just take them as they come and am glad I have enough brains left to work any of them.

I must have started doing these around the same time as will37 - 2 or 3 years ago - and I’d agree this was straightforward. However 2 or 3 years ago I’m sure I’d have found this hard so it’s nice to have a mark of my progress, and it’s a good puzzle for newer solvers.

Definitely a contrast to last week's offering with an endgame that was a doddle. Shortest time in which I've completed a Listener.

I think this theme was the subject of a recent EV, but Samson's grid is much better.

I agree with pootle that, since he and I started doing Listener puzzles, we've probably both become more proficient solvers. Also I've no objection to entry-level puzzles from time to time to encourage others join in. I just feel that this puzzle - apart from the odd archaism - left my BRB largely unopened. The vocabulary of both clues and solutions was very (too?) straightforward.

Well, as straightforward as that was, I still managed to highlight the wrong first 2 letters of one of the five - actually, the correct 2 letters but the ones in the wrong place, if that makes sense!