Listen With Others

Musical Listeners aren’t normally, I confess, my favourite crosswords! Diamond was enjoyable thanks to the small number of possible keys for “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and its relatively painless emergence as the theme. The identity of the “symbols” dawned on me next morning – helped by STAR and MUSIC – and I was heartily relieved to spot “I wonder” as the two-word phrase. When I wrote the notes outside the grid alongside the rows, it all made sense and I was able to colour in the crochets and minims. (I just hope it is the notes that were required, rather than the stars.)

I was also relieved to solve 4dn “Doctor is parking in Oval buildings” (PAVILIONS) – a clever anagram that sent me down the ELLIPSOID route for a long time (P in IS etc). I had to reverse engineer 8dn “Italian essentially ignored Malaysian lord” (TUAN) – Tuscan was the last thought on my mind.

I love variety in puzzles, and gently musical Listeners are all part of the Listener’s rich tapestry. Great in small numbers!