Listen With Others

Phew, now in 2023! Apologies to Craft for calling him (or possibly her) Kea in my submitted feedback – a cut-and-paste error made under stress of meeting the deadline – I don’t suppose it will be the last I make this year, but fortunately this one wasn’t in the grid.

Linebacker was a lovely puzzle, nothing complicated but a joy to solve and pleasing to behold when complete. I found it educational too, on a subject that is dear to many people’s hearts (including mine). Thank you for the message, the components of which were neatly hidden, and especially for constructing the line through all the stations – it took me a while to spot it and was reassuring confirmation that I was on the right line, literally.

I found Linebacker a relatively easy solve, which gave me time to savour the clues. My favourites are the rather risqué 28ac RETROBULBAR (Cry about splitting pants or tear right behind the balls) and another that conjures bodily images, 12dn, “Crouching with head down in rustic spots”. Even more so when QUATS is found to refer to zits rather than beauty spots. Very clever, Craft. I look forward to your next one!