Listen With Others

Oh Sabre, how you tantalise us by whetting our appetites with such mouth-watering Hellenic treats when we are stuck in Old Blighty! Once again you have provided us with a well-crafted and intensely demanding challenge. For me it hinged on two pdms – one Google’s, one mine.  Nostimous was intractable (Taverna might have been kinder to those of us without a classical education) until Google translate helpfully suggested Greek. That led to the realisation that the “letters” to be removed were not singletons but the names of Greek letters. Progress became possible!

Possible but with some rather oblique definitions and a several bear-traps. My mind struggled to get past SHOWADDYWADDY leading to WADDY for 2dn’s band of yesteryear and cowboy respectively – I guess that just dates me! I also wanted 4dn to be ACING (AC-IN-G) for Eliminating, but it lacked the extra letter of course.

The mark of a superlative puzzle is the sense of bereavement felt upon its completion and this one certainly provides that. Thanks Sabre!