Listener 4199 Scattered by Kea

[Ruthrobin]

What a pleasure to see a Kea puzzle but what a tough solve. No, not really opening the Friday club as I still have to produce my final grid and there is some demanding word play to sort out but many thanks to Kea for an astonishingly challenging puzzle!

[trux]

Ditto, RR. All but. Gridfill (maybe) complete - part of final movements discovered. But brain hurts so must get rest.....

[Zabadak]

Everything but how to form the final entries. Don't think any normal entries are wrong, can get a sensible 16 letter phrase following instruction (amazing, by the way), can't make it do anything sensible with the final entries because of unresolved ambiguity in the "description". Must sleep zzzz.

[TheBear69]

Unbelievable construction! It boggles the mind...I finally have arrived at the end though one of the wordplay's eludes me.

I'm not sure 22a is fair...I certainly am not going to rush out and acquire OED but I trust I have the right island.

[Monkmonk]

One of the wordplay's what?

You may be able to access the OED online through your library. Visit http://www.oed.com/loginpage and enter your library card number.

An original challenge as one would expect from Kea.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Thanks. MonkMonk. that worked a treat. But OED still doesn't confirm if it's what I saw in Funchal when we were there.

[Mesnilpat]

I am plodding through the grid, slowly as usual. With regards to 22a, I found it in Wiktionary.

[crosswhit99]

Your suspicions are probably correct according to the online OED vetuste_ennemi. You can also access this and many other works of reference via Credo using your Library details:

http://www.credoreference.com/loginwayf.do

[aldanna]

Well, I am glad that people like RR are finding this hard as I am progressing very slowly - mind you, I haven't ground to a halt yet.

[jim360]

Not started this yet. Looks beyond me, but anyway I won't have the time to look at it properly until tomorrow. Then again, I said that 4197 was beyond me and ended up finishing it so there is hope still!

On another note, hope all of you have some free time on Monday evening - look out for me in the bottom right at 8pm on BBC 2!!!

[magichour]

I was hoping for an easy one this week as I am getting married tomorrow and leaving on honeymoon on Monday. The soon-to-be Mrs Magichour is all too aware that there is wifi coverage in our Thai hotel. I think taking the BRB with me is off limits, however. Made a decent start with this one so hoping it doesn't take too long, or I will have a lot of catching up to do...

[Ruthrobin]

Congratulations Magichour - that's Magic!

[dr b]

Wow. Absolutely amazing puzzle. I cannot believe the endgame actually works as it does.

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, indeed. Astounding! How does Kea create such wonderful things. I think my all-time favourite is bound to be his cherry tree that was chopped and fell about three years ago. It was almost the first Listener I ever solved and I was and still am dazzled by the ingenuity of it.

[Charpy]

Lots of competition from golf and cricket this weekend, but finally got there.

Terrific puzzle and thanks a lot, Kea.

Won't say any more - don't want to give the slightest hint on this one.

[midazolam]

This is why Kea is one of the best in the business. This is an incredible construction with dual symmetry and a very clever red herring (for me anyway) along the way.

[starwalker]

Well I've finally got my grid almost filled and the description. I'm pretty sure I know what to do next, but I think I'll put it to one side for the moment.
As ever with Kea you don't just get a puzzle and that's it, you really do get value for money. Wonderful !

[AndrewG-S]

Very enjoyable so far. Still need to find the description though to confirm the endgame. Congrats magic hour, can I suggest the brb app on iPhone, touch or pad is easier to sneak into the luggage than brb.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Thanks for the advice, Crosswhit. I couldn't log on with my (very old) library card although it had worked OK when I got on to the OED site. But popped into my local library and got myself sorted out. I can now access Credo and many more sites from the library's own portal.
Meanwhile Kea is threatening to ruin my weekend. All seemed very simple about 8 o'clock last night with a nearly full grid and having been led (with a little gasp at the originality of the concept) to the description, but it's become obvious from the comments here that I've missed a trick. So, persevere and hope that the impenetrable 11ac and baffling 6d yield.

[trux]

Not sure what 3-letter textspeak is allowed here, so will stick to OMG! A marvel, really. Many thanks, Kea, (and thoroughly approve of license you allowed yourself in some of the clues!!)

[AHearer]

That was a beauty: I am always staggered by the original twists that Kea always seems to bring to the puzzles, but this was one of the most impressive constructions I can remember.