Listen With Others

Got it! Only 5 minutes in and I’ve cracked the theme. It’s rivers of course. TEA MAKER is the title, backed up by the River URE appearing in 15ac “Where one could store data — empty Cloud” making CD into CURED. Nailed it, I thought.

But no, Trouble Maker lived up to its name, by shunning such an obvious solution for an equally attractive and more promising set of bits, ie foreign coins. And that’s fine too – as a youngster I used to collect coins, until we decimalised and I shifted my affections to old postcards. True, the set of coins I recognise shrinks by the decade as new denominations come on board, but the subject matter never fails to please and hats off to KevGar for sneaking in such a wealth of currencies. (Not so sure about the “doubles”.)

The clues were fairly tough in places but fair and pleasingly challenging. The one I struggled with was 16d, “In some places, one short wader to a man”. I had ONCE or UNCE, and was determined to equate man with PIECE (I’m sure a PIE was some kind of Indian coin, back in the day). Many hours later, the solution dawned – UNA VOCE, minus AVO – one hundredth, I learn, of a Macanese pataca. I’m pretty sure that one never featured in my juvenile collection, and I’m always pleased to learn something new.

A great workout thanks KevGar, looking forward to your next one.

PS ROUBLE-TROUBLEMAKER, I shall say nothing!