Listener 4100: Table-turning by Kea

[midazolam]

This is what the listener is all about. As soon as I saw Kea's name at the top I knew this was going to be good. This was a real challenge, the like we have been missing recently. Masterful construction with ingenious ideas in both clues and design. The best this year so far. Thanks for the brain workout Kea.

[AHearer]

Yes, very nice -- though my first reading of the instructions left me thinking there was one level of complexity beyond what was actually there.

[trux]

Began last night, found author almost immediately - which lead me to the poem and soon after the relevant line ... but not enough clues solved yet ... much brainchurning still ahead of me. Real conundrum if it stops raining ....

[IntoTheBlue]

As always KEA serves up a delight, definitely one of my favourites of the year so far.

I have a query which I'm still pondering over for the letter generated for the phrase from 30d but apart from that all fits nicely.

IntoTheBlue

[Ruthrobin]

Yes, Into the Blue - I am struggling with exactly that at the moment - but long way behind you. The poet and line appeared quickly but each of the clues is a conundrum of its own.

[dr b]

I ran into a brick wall with this last night - dead stop after about 10 answers. This morning I must have been more in tune with the setter as it all resolved itself pretty quickly. I thought it was fine - a marvel of construction, etc etc, certainly on the harder side, but it did not transport me as it appears to have done to midazolam!

[trux]

Even though the sun has come out, I keep on going back to this crackerjack of a puzzle .... and (lentissimo) am crawling along. Top RH corner looks good, struggling more in lower half (where odd things seem to be happening - which must be a sign of things to come !)

[tweaker]

Yes a great crossword. Have the theme/author. Still yet to complete, I can see why Kea is popular, but for me until completed still like mr E's puzzle of recent. I'm cracking on and in.

[trux]

S-Matrix : methinks you underestimate Kea .... there's more to this than what looked also trivial to me at first.

[midazolam]

S Matrix: I wouldnt jump in here and make brash statements until you have finished the crossword.

[contendo]

I've got the poet but not much else. It's that bit about "the results usually being jumbled on entry" that's throwing me because that means that checked letters are no help as they may be transferred from somewhere else. Perhaps light will dawn after a few more hours (or days)...

[daagg]

This was great fun - hard but absolutely fair. I found it quite confusing to have the clues printed in non-grid order, as I could never find one again to check up on it. Curiously, my last 5 answers were all ones with an added letter, so that was obviously my worst sort of clue.

I'm not sure I would rate it as the best of the year - that is still Shackleton's Beethoven - but it was in the ranking.

[AHearer]

Contendo, I think you're interpreting the rubric in the same way as I inititally did. Kea has not been quite as tough on us as at first appears.

[thebuzz999]

I share midazolam's enthusiasm...very tough clueing and a great finish.

I did find the scrambling of the clue numbers annoying..."Where is 8dn? I know I just saw it a moment ago..."

[dr b]

I was surprised at how quickly I became familiar with where the clues were - probably from staring at them blankly for so long. I found that solving was aided immensely by the two gifts in the preamble - no adjacent clues alike; initial letter of clue = initial letter of defined answer in add/remove clues.

[contendo]

AHearer - I can't see any ambiguity in results "being jumbled on entry".

[Ruthrobin]

Contendo, when you see what AHearer is saying, that's the first pdm. Indeed S.Matrix, after spending a full day on this, I can only echo what Midazolam says. I knew from the start we could expect something remarkable from Kea - and it certainly is!

[trux]

Still not fully there but full of admiration for the ingenuity of the design (and I find solving each remaining clue something of a mini-victory - not too many "gimme"s....). Now to "complete for the sake of completing" !

[flocker]

Having mastered Gertrude Stein, the Printers Devil and the Herbs I thought I was beginning to get the hang of this - but this Kea one is fiendish! I've got the poet but am stuck on a host of impossibly obtuse clues. 5 ac for example, in a crucial position, yields nothing after attacks from every conceivable direction and i only have one checking letter. Are the clues here just a notch above what one's used to?

[cluelessJoe]

flocker, you might have gathered by now that Kea is normally several notches above the usual fare.