Listen With Others

Congratulations Filbert on your first Listener crossword! Solving White Rose was far more pleasurable than watching the original outburst! It’s hard to believe it happened more than 30 years ago.

First, I’d like to thank Filbert for the title – it helped the penny to drop in the final tricky step and helped me spot Filbert’s lovely depiction of the “ball” on the line. Thanks too for pitching the difficulty at the right level – stretching but not to breaking point. I was also impressed by the clues – I had 4 favourites which I think is an impressive haul for a new setter. These were

• 20ac for its description of an EMMET: Heading west, one alien crossing middle of Tamar?
• 35ac (Thong one wears touching Jimmy’s heart) for the distracting picture it paints and introducing me to a new word, RIEM
• 21dn (Mare disturbed by culmination coming up, sire lifting its tail) for its equine surface reading and clever way of moving a letter to an earlier position), and
• 24dn (Difficult stopping Nazis in Paris left after destruction of Dresden), again for its clever consistency of theme.

I was led astray for a while by 9ac’s Regular traveller, which I wanted to be SERVITE (a member of the mendicant order of Servants of the Virgin, founded at Florence in 1233). Then the penny dropped (d’oh) and I realised that SERVICE LINE made thematic sense and 9ac was one of the definition clues.

I hope that Filbert has more interests to depict in Listener crosswords.