Kea’s puzzles are normally at the trickier end of the spectrum, certainly those in the Listener series. Time would tell whether I was in for a hard time this week or not.
My first pass through the across clues indicated that it might not be plain sailing. 31 ERHU! Yes, that was it. I even missed the simple hidden FLEA at 13 and the Japanese port NIIGATA at 16, and the anagram of ‘voyeur less’ at 35 certainly eluded me with its odd definition, ‘sane collectively’.
The downs weren’t much better.
Anyway, the puzzle gradually came together with Kea’s usual high standard of clueing. The choreographic nature of certain answers remained a mystery until I had completed about half of the grid. UNDID at 21ac seemed to become ·UD·E, and switching the first two letters and advancing the last by one resulted in NUDIE. Lo and behold, the only other 5-letter answer I had at that point, 22ac LEVER, became ELVES, and I was home and dry.
A finished grid, and all I had to do was find the two hidden words, a given name and its partner. In fact, it was the partner, DEGAS, that I spotted first, which led to EDGAR as its unchoreographed original. Well I knew that Edgar Degas was a painter, but was unaware of his penchant for dancers.
Three hours on the dancefloor and I’m exhausted! Thanks, Kea.
Legend:
Definition in clue
ABC* = anagram
ABC< = reversal
abCDef = hidden
| ACROSS | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 3 | REGELATING | Good story in Saharan country about freezing again (10) (G (good) + TALE (story) in NIGER (Saharan country))< |
|
| 10 | AHULL becomes HAULM |
How boat might weather storm, utmost efforts containing clamour mostly (5) HU[e] (clamour, mostly) in ALL (utmost effort) |
|
| 11 | IRISED | Craving when last quarter leaves turned rainbow-coloured (6) DESIRI[ng]< (craving, minus 25%) |
|
| 12 | OENONE | Somebody carrying anybody back who loved Paris (6) ONE (somebody) containing ONE< (anybody); that’s Paris the mythological chap, not the city |
|
| 13 | FLEA | Some of leather that may be suffused with oxblood? (4) in oF LEAther |
|
| 15 | BRECHAMS | Clydesdale collars edition of Chambers (8) CHAMBERS* |
|
| 16 | NIIGATA | Japanese port‘s done it again (7) (IT AGAIN)* |
|
| 18 | HENNAED | Female president making comeback turned red (7) HEN (female) + DEAN< (president) |
|
| 21 | UNDID becomes NUDIE |
In Berlin, and with papers opened (5) UND (and, German) + ID (papers) |
|
| 22 | LEVER becomes ELVES |
Pry with sly look and see inside (5) LEER (sly look) containing V (vide, see, Latin) |
|
| 24 | REEDIER | Westbound arctic grazers — when last of lichen’s gone, more like stiff grass (7) (REINDEER (arctic grazers) – N (last of licheN))< |
|
| 27 | RANGOLI | Floor design called mostly stinky (7) RANG (called) + OLI[d] (stinky, mostly) |
|
| 29 | GASPLANT | Wheeze left possible worker in volatile oil producer (8) GASP (wheeze) + L (left) + ANT (possible worker) |
|
| 31 | ERHU | Search out regularly plucked string instrument (4) regular characters of sEaRcH oUt |
|
| 32 | NERNST | Radon fills home of German scientist (6) RN (Radon) in NEST (home) |
|
| 33 | DONZEL | Be stupid, bringing in National League, old squire (6) DOZE (be stupid) containing N (National) + L (League) |
|
| 34 | ERNED becomes RENEE |
Milton’s made King Edward “Eddie” (5) ER (King Edward) + NED (Eddie) |
|
| 35 | YOURSELVES | Unstable voyeur, less sane collectively? (10) (VOYEUR LESS)* |
|
| DOWN | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| No | Entry | Clue and Explanation | |
| 1 | THORNHEDGE | Ragged border broken twice by hard barrier of small trees (10) TORN (ragged) EDGE (border) conatining H (hard) twice |
|
| 2 | FAERIE | Fathom a lake in ancient enchanted place (6) F (fathom) + A ERIE (lake) |
|
| 3 | RUND | Tartan edging‘s come unstitched on date (4) RUN (come unstitched) + D (date) |
|
| 4 | ELOIGNER | European girl one upset, who took things far away (8) (E (European) GIRL ONE)* |
|
| 5 | VEERS becomes EVERT |
Eccentricity in French poetry changes one’s attitude (5) E (eccentricity) in VERS (French verse) |
|
| 6 | LIMEADE | Soft drink concoction spiked with alcoholic one (7) LIE (concoction) containing MEAD (alcoholic drink) |
|
| 7 | ARACHNE | Spider-Woman accepted among cunning definitive characters from Stan Lee (7) A (accepted) in ARCH (cunning) + NE (definitive, ie last, letters of staN leE) |
|
| 8 | ISLAND | Water-bound terrain, one with grained rock fringing length (6) I (one) + SAND (grained rock) around L (length) |
|
| 9 | ENEMA becomes NEEMB |
Injection curtailed hostile advance (5) ENEM[y] (hostile, curtailed) + A (advance) |
|
| 14 | ASTERIATED | Having starry reflections radiate out holds aliens up (10) RADIATE* containing ETS< (aliens, ie Extra TerrestrialS) |
|
| 17 | BUDGEREE | Castor to move last two bits of furniture east (8) BUDGE (to move) + RE (last two letters of furnituRE) + E (east) |
|
| 19 | ASYLEES | While pitiful for some, brought up people granted protection in US (7) AS (while) + SEELY (pitiful, dialect) |
|
| 20 | ERRABLE | The Spanish capo climbs once having capacity for evil (7) (EL (the, Spanish) + BARRE (capo))< |
|
| 23 | VISHNU | Power supported by Hindus, forsaking every other? (6) VIS (power) + every other letter of HNU; &lit. |
|
| 25 | ELYSEE | Cathedral city, bishop’s base for presidential residence (6) ELY (cathedral city) + SEE (bishop’s base) |
|
| 26 | AKRON becomes KAROO |
Ohio city border with kilometres for parking (5) APRON (border) with P (parking) replaced by K (kilometres) |
|
| 28 | NANAK becomes ANNAL |
New person with unsociable interests disheartened Sikhs’ leader (5) N (new) + AN[or]AK (person with unsociable interests, disheartened) |
|
| 30 | ANNS | Former Scottish Widows’ payments start off marriage announcement (4) [b]ANNS (marriage announcements, without first letter) |
|
I’ve only seen three or four Kea puzzles now but each one is brilliant and so well constructed. Enjoyed this one loads too.