Posted by Admin on May 10th, 2013
The annual lunch for Times setters is taking place on 23rd May and this will be followed by a Sloggers and Betters get-together in The Town of Ramsgate (62 Wapping High Street E1) from 4pm onwards. All welcome.
Posted in Announcements | 8 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on May 22nd, 2013
It took me longer to get going on this than usual for a Chifonie, but it all came out nicely in the end, with some well-written, if uncomplicated, clues.
Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on May 22nd, 2013
To those of you expecting a Dac crossword you should be aware that today is an important day in musical and operatic history. Also, if you know the background or interests of the Independent crossword setters, you will not be surprised that a puzzle by Klingsor is the Independent offering today.
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on May 22nd, 2013
The preamble for Y Z by Samuel was not too long. It stated "Six clues contain partial wordplay only; the remainder of the wordplay could be given by a two-word phrase Y Z. In 30 further clues, the wordplay leads to the answer plus an extra letter not to entered into the grid; these give Y Z #1. Y Z #2 makes up the unclued part of the perimeter; its unchecked letters could give PIP LIKES ICECAP. Four entries clued without definition may be combined to give Y Z #3 and must be highlighted.
Posted in Inquisitor | 1 Comment »
Posted by John on May 21st, 2013
Radian has given us a difficult but good and sound puzzle today. The theme is based on someone whose birthday I just looked up, but today isn’t some great anniversary. Perhaps it is, though, and no doubt we will be enlightened.
Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »
Posted by scchua on May 21st, 2013
This looked daunting at first, with only scattered solutions on the first pass. But it got better as quadrant by quadrant was completed. After the last Gaff I blogged, where I couldn’t identify the theme, I resolved not to repeat the failure. And this time I did spot the theme, partly because it is more internationally known, and more easily spottable. Thanks to Gaff for the enjoyment. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Posted in FT | 16 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on May 21st, 2013
Thank you, Eileen for playing locum tenens so ably last Tuesday when I was climbing the 999 steps to the TienMenSan (Door to Heaven) near ZhangJiaJie in Hunan, the province that gave China an illustrious son, Mao Zedong. Coupled with the Hash run hosted by the Guangzhou Hash, it made for a most refreshing break.
Posted in Guardian | 31 Comments »
Posted by manehi on May 20th, 2013
Found this quite tough for a Rufus – the SE corner held me up, and I had to resort to Google for 25ac given the unhelpful crossers. Favourite clues were 6dn and 8dn, as well as 25ac once I understood it.
Posted in Guardian | 18 Comments »
Posted by NealH on May 20th, 2013
It’s fairly unusual to see a DAC on a Monday, although he did skip the usual Wednesday slot a couple of weeks ago, so I suppose this is making up for it. This was elegantly and accessibly clued with just a couple (15 down and 25) that I didn’t quite follow.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 16 Comments »
Posted by PeterO on May 20th, 2013
The crossword may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/quiptic/705.
Posted in Guardian Quiptic | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ali on May 19th, 2013
I seem to be landing quite a few Kairos puzzles on Sundays, but no problem with that. This was one was just as enjoyable as the others. A good range of clues on offer here, with 4D my favourite for the very well disguised wordplay
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Pierre on May 19th, 2013
A pleasing puzzle in the usual Everyman style, including – as is often the case – some references that I’d not come across before. I did however need to phone a friend to understand the parsing of one clue. But no spelling mistakes this week …
Posted in Everyman | 7 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on May 19th, 2013
I got going pretty quickly with this one, and thought it might be a bit of a walkover, but the last few clues,especially in the SE corner, slowed me to a crawl. It almost goes without saying that the clueing is of the usual high Azedian standard, but I had a couple of niggles/queries that others may be able to put me right on.
Posted in Azed | 2 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on May 18th, 2013
Apologies for the late appearance of this post. The scheduled blogger has been unable to post and I have been struggling to remember what I did a week ago.
Posted in Guardian | 22 Comments »
Posted by twencelas on May 18th, 2013
Well my most recent blog of the Independent was on Grand National day – now it’s cup final day – Maybe a cup final theme today?
Posted in Independent | 17 Comments »
Posted by mc_rapper67 on May 18th, 2013
Some sad news to report first – which I don’t think has been mentioned on this site yet - is that the preamble to EV1069, published on Sun 5 May informs us that James Leonard, aka EV setter Rustic, the EV editor for more than 20 years, had died the previous week on 28 May, at the age of 72. I’m sure all EV fans, and indeed all 15×15 contributors and visitors, will be saddened to hear this. There is an obituary in the telegraph here, and the announcement above EV1069 states: “If you have ever solved an Enigmatic Variations puzzle, then you have enjoyed the work of James Leonard. So we are very sad to say that James Leonard, the editor of the EV for more than 20 years, died last Sunday, aged 72. He will be greatly missed. James launched the EV in The Sunday Telegraph on October 11 1992 and had edited it ever since, as well as contributing EVs which he compiled under his alias of Rustic. He was held in enormous respect and affection by his team of compilers, some of whom say they learned almost everything they know about barred crosswords from James.”
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | 2 Comments »