And we’re off, with a stonker of a puzzle from new setter Bell (well, a new partnership anyway) – this is the work of top practitioners, presumably communicating by Bell Codes. And yes, it does have a railway theme, even if your blogger only spotted it at the end.
Listener
Listener No 4866, “It’s Not Involved”, A Setter’s Blog by Quinapalus
Plato chose a convenient spot for his Academy, about half-way between the main railway and long-distance coach stations in Athens. The area is now a park with, like a lot of ancient sites, not much to see apart from a few stones on the ground. There’s a small ‘Digital Museum’ nearby which unfortunately I did not have time to visit.
Listener No 4866 It’s Not Involved by Quinapalus
Quinapalus gives us seven lines of preamble.
Listener 4865: Location, Location by Arcadia
Yes – a circular grid!
Listener No 4863, “Board of Trade”, A Setter’s Blog by Deuce
I’ve seen plenty of crossword puzzles based on games: Scrabble (from Paddock, just a few weeks ago); Boggle (from Twin); Battleships (Harribobs); Sudoku (Twin again); and uncountable further references to chess, bridge and go.
Listener 4863: The Green Grass Don by Smudge
A very warm welcome back to Smudge, who we’ve not seen at the Listener since 4388 and 4503! But we have a confession to make …
Listener 4861 Plain Cloth by Paddock
We meet Paddock in a range of crosswords, Paddock in the Listener, Phylax in the Magpie, Ranunculus in the EV, Triton, and Phibs as the EV blogger (I hope I’ve got those right) so we know we are in the hands of an expert.
Listener No 4861, “Plain Cloth” by Paddock
According to the Crossword Database (which is operational again after some heavy bot traffic recently), there have been seven puzzles where a certain board game has featured, two of them Listeners. (Spoiler alert, this is the eighth/third.)
Listener No 4860, “Lost” by Dash
A bit of history this week from Da and Sh, two well-known setter/solvers who have migrated here from Listen With Others. This was their first Listener but they have an Inquisitor and Magpie under their belt.
Listener No 4859, “Forever”, A Setter’s Blog by Twin
There are many great Listener crosswords that are much-loved because of their complexity, involving a series of ideas that build upon each other to form an intricate and satisfying whole.
Listener 4859: Forever by Twin
POTUS may be getting us down, but here’s a potential POTY from Twin to brighten our day.
Listener No 4859, “Forever” by Twin
I didn’t realise that Twin’s first Listener was back in 2017. Since then he has had pretty much one a year, including two wins of the Ascot Gold Cup (Tip-top Condition in 2020 and Singles Only in 2022). He was also one of the five finalists in last year’s Times Crossword Championship.