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 include.
Hints only, please, no answers.

The theme...
Help towards the theme may also be given here. The help given should be fairly gentle in nature - just a nudge, a pointer in the right direction, and certainly not anything that would spoil the puzzle for other solvers.
If you do feel a reply is too revealing, please let the site administrator know. Email her at Norah.evoluted@aol.com. Norah errs on the side of caution, so anything at all iffy is likely to be removed.

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

This is being posted early this week as I'm going out and don't know when I'll return.
Happy 2026 to all and sundry.

I hope that the echo of Captain Oates in your penultimate sentence is entirely coincidental, Malone! Happy New Year.

Be careful out there, Malone.

Best Wishes to all for the year ahead 😊

Relatively gentle start to 2026 - even though theme unfamiliar to me.
Happy New Year to all.

Jack, thanks - my original wording was the proper Oates version, then I changed it!


Bobbycollins, thanks. I'm pleased to say that I survived my day out.

I hope all Listener solvers/attempters have a good, successful year.

Malone, back in the day when I was ice-climbing, “I’m going out” was almost always greeted with “oh, then can I have your Mars Bar, Captain Oates?” And, yes, it did get a bit tiresome!

Surprisingly gentle grid fill for an Ifor puzzle. The unclued entry is new to me, again surprisingly given the attributes. Still to get all 4 across clues (one seems obvious enough, the others more elusive) and the locations - although I suspect that one is a gimme.

I agree that the grid fill was surprisingly easy.

The endgame shows the brilliance of the construction. Thanks, Ifor.

I'd say a few of the clues were gentler than usual, but by no means all. The endgame was enjoyable. The across entries sharing attributes took more thinking than first expected. Timely theme. Many thanks, Ifor.

Agreed, Barnacle. Several easy clues, so I have the message, 23, and the locations, but no idea of the attributes shared in two pairs of entries?