Listen With Others

Eight entries to entered where they fit. Twelve clues each with a hidden word. Five unnumbered entries. And some asterisked cells. And four pertinent words to be found in the grid. Simple, eh?

This puzzle included my favourite clue in quite a while:

Romanticist’s prelude, composition for piano involving distinctive repetition at outset (8)

When I first parsed it, with very little personal classical music knowledge, I saw it as R + DR in PIANO* to form RAINDROP. I even wrote in the margin “Where is def.?”

I then mentioned it to a piano-playing son, who said, “But I’ve been playing this one on and off for years – I’ll play it for you” – and, sure enough, the clue’s description of this Raindrop Prelude by Chopin was perfect. When I showed him the clue afterwards, he asked, “But where’s the cryptic bit?” A pretty-much perfect clue – congratulations!

First and last letters of the twelve words provided one message and one author, thus:
WeddinG
InK
NeurotiC
EighteentH
AussiE
NewS
DistricT
WerE
AmbassadoR
ThaT
EmbargO
RomaN

All of which led quickly to the GK CHESTERTON quote, “I don’t care where the water goes if it doesn’t get into the wine”.

And, positioned without any overlap of the 8 types of water, the unnumbered entries can be added to create MADEIRA/ ARNEIS/ MALBEC/ CHABLIS neatly at the puzzle’s centre.

For completeness, the Ancient Mariner was NOAH and the eight forms of water: SNOWBALL, PERRIER, NILE, BROOKS, RAINDROP, PACIFIC, AMAZON and LAKE.

Cheers

Tim / Encota