Crossword Help Forum
Forum Rules

The clues...
Requests for help should normally include the clue itself, the number of letters in the answer, and details of any you already have. Any additional information or special instructions (common in Listener puzzles) should also be included.
Hints only, please, no answers.

The theme...
Requests may also be sought here for help with the theme. The help should be enough to give a nudge, a pointer in the right direction - not anything that would spoil the puzzle for other solvers. Any query or reply which, even inadvertently, reveals too much is likely to be removed.

The Listener is a unique puzzle and should be treated with respect.

Only 15 minutes in but already of the view this is another belter from Xanthippe. Not too hard (so far) but original and lots of fun

I agree. It's always pleasing to see a fresh way of putting answers in. But, as so often, the endgame is perplexing. I have the quotation but I can't see how a string of 33 letters can be entered in mirror fashion in a 12x12 grid. Mirror vertically or horizontally, or both - none leads to a group of 33 cells unless the pattern is not symmetrically placed within the grid. So a logical gap still to be teased out.

Really nice crossword + grid. All done except finding the jumbled quotation. Not sure how much grid-staring it will take...

I have the quotation and I am in the same place. Rugby starting soon and I don't have the motivation to search any further. I hope the visual result of the highlighting job makes the gruesome search worthwhile for those that manage it.

I don’t much care for the wording of the preamble. The highlighting is symmetrical in itself, but as Cockie says, it can’t be symmetrical within a 12x12 grid if it’s an odd number of cells. In other words, if you turn the grid over it will not map onto itself. Is that obvious? Maybe. Could it be clearer? I think so

A glimmer of light has appeared (but only a glimmer). Maybe the axis of symmetry isn't as I thought it was.

For the symmetry at the end bear in mind that you have the 33 cells and the 9 not used in the quotation.

It's 33 letters, not cells, which is specified. Perhaps one or more cells is/are used in more than one word, thus enabling symmetry.

I've completed and think the ending is fair, lovely crossword.