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 additional information or special instructions, common in Listener puzzles, should also be included.
Hints only, please, no answers.

The theme...
Requests for help towards the theme can also be made here. The 'help' should really just be a nudge, a pointer in the right direction - and definitely not anything that would spoil the puzzle for others. Any posts which, even inadvertently, reveal too much of the theme are likely to be removed.

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

Interesting subject and neatly done, but, as often with Chalicea, all over a bit too quickly. Good one for any new solvers to have a crack at.

SH

Fully agree. Easier ones needed but was looking forward to getting my teeth into something a bit meatier.

I agree that it's important that easier crosswords are available sometimes - but IMO this one was the most straightforward Listener puzzle I've seen. Less than an hour!

People often say that these easy Listeners are good for new solvers... but what happens after they've rattled these simpler ones off? Are there setters who are one step up in the difficulty factor - or is it just a big leap to the more usual level?

Thanks to Chalicea for an elegant, if gentle, puzzle. If I knew of the connection between the two journeys, I had completely forgotten it. No doubt there will be complaints about the level of difficulty - including from some who also complain about “wilful obscurity” when the puzzles are more challenging. For my part I know that I couldn’t set a thematic puzzle - at any level - to save my life and I’m grateful for the efforts of those with the necessary gifts to provide me with amusement. I am prepared to gripe only when I have had a considerable struggle and been disappointed by the quality of the outcome.

Interesting, Jack. If you're a regular solver - I'm not - is there a sort of progression I could look out for, so I'd know which setters I might manage? I know that Sabre is very tough and that Chalicea isn't, but I know very little about the setters in between!

Malone@5, I have (rather tongue in cheek given a previous post-career life as chair of a charity providing recovery and rehab services) explained to friends that crosswords are not a hobby. Hobbies - photography, golf, climbing, whatever - are all versions of the Platonic ideal hobby: which is “buying kit”. Crosswords are clearly not that - what kit could you buy? Crosswords are an addiction. Once you start, you seek out more and harder stuff. So the easier Listeners might be regarded as gateway substances. Maybe not straight into the more difficult Listeners but other dealers are on the street: “Fancy a bag of Mephistos?” “Try an AZED or two.”

Yes, I know. I’ll get my coat.

Thanks, Jack. Although Azed and Mephisto are certainly on the tough side, they don't meet my need, craving for tougher thematic puzzles. I think I have never been keen on the 'easier puzzles are good for beginners' since I solved one about 10 years ago (after previously managing to solve only a handful of clues in every other one I'd tried). It was so, so simple, it was completed in about 30 minutes - and my overwhelming reaction was 'That was not a 'real' Listener'. I was actually quite delighted to find an undoable Listener the following week!

PS Although some of this conversation is not about the latest Listener, I hope people don't mind too much. I feel it's tolerable now - many many people don't even see the puzzle until Saturday.

No, I (probably) couldn't set a thematic puzzle to save my life. Yes, we need some easier puzzles from time to time. But surely this one is far too easy to be a Listener?