If you want fast solving times you need to start young…
Posted by neildubya on 2nd July 2007
My three-month old son Dylan helping me with last Saturday’s Indie crossword.
Posted in Archive | 2 Comments »
Archive for July 2nd, 2007
Independent 6461/Hypnos
Posted by bensand on 2nd July 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 6 | BORIS – SIR + OB =< |
| 7 | RETICENT – CITE <= in RENT |
| 10 | HOGWEED – ((L)OW HEDGE)* |
| 13 | DOWAGER – “DO WAGER” |
| 14 | STAGE FRIGHT – Cryptic definition |
| 20 | CARAMEL – Chlorine = CL around ARAME which was new to me |
| 22 | REDRUTH – E + DR in RUTH |
| 24 | MARQUIS – MAQUIS around R |
| Down | |
| 1 | PROGRESS – PR + OGRESS |
| 2 | ASLEEP – One of three down clues where I can’t see the wordplay. Out = ASLEEP. LEEP = PEEL reversed. So old copper has to be AS? Is this AS the one? |
| 3 | BRIDGEHEAD – BRIDESHEAD around G minus S |
| 4 | STAB – STAB = Go and is half of stabling I suppose |
| 5 | ENDING – Wordplay in the answer, END IN G is a feature of THUG |
| 6 | BEHEST – Not sure of the wordplay. HE is probably diplomat but I can’t see where BEST around it comes from – if indeed BEHEST is right |
| 9 | THOR – sounds like (JOHN) THAW |
| 16 | TIMBUKTU – TIM + B + UK + TU. TU = Trade Union for workers? |
| 17 | GLOSSY – GLOSSARY – (A R). Cosmopolitan being a glossy magazine. This took me a long time, I hadn’t thought of glossary and was trying to justify classy to myself as an answer although it didn’t work for definition or wordplay! |
| 18 | PORT – Deal is a port in Kent |
| 21 | RARITY – Not entirely sure about this. RA for artist, if only ORITY, RIOTY, RITNILY or something like that was elegance I’d be home and dry but I can’t see it |
Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Guardian 24118/Arachne
Posted by linxit on 2nd July 2007
Solving time approx. 15 mins. I think this is the second time I’ve blogged an Arachne puzzle on a Monday. As in the last one, the surface readings are all good, and most of the clues are scrupulously fair, although I’m a bit stuck on the wordplay of a couple.
Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »
Private Eye/Cyclops 342
Posted by beermagnet on 2nd July 2007
The Eye Crossword normally takes every opportunity to be rude, funny, and disrespectful to authority, just like the magazine. Often there are references to in-jokes, magazine nicknames, fictitious Eye columnists etc. that mean it can be hard to finish without being an Eye reader.Sometimes there can be quite hard straight cryptic clues, but on average these seem milder than (Cyclops alter-ego) Brummie’s work for the Guardian (but watch out for the Christmas special – that can be a monster). I suspect the requirement to squeeze clues to fit the Eye’s style means they are restricted to a smaller number of possibilities, thus become easier to solve with familiarity. For my part it’s probably the Eye Crossword that has led to me being a keen solver – it is great fun and can be a real hoot! I’d rate this crossword as averagely hard for the Eye, and averagely rude, and averagely funny, so a pretty representative example with which to start the blog. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 3 Comments »
Starting Today – the Cyclops crossword in Private Eye.
Posted by neildubya on 2nd July 2007
From today we will be blogging the Cyclops puzzles that appear in Private Eye magazine. This represents a shift from our current policy of covering puzzles that appear in national newspapers but it’s a cracking puzzle and I’m a big fan of it so I thought: why not? It’s a prize puzzle (the prize is £100 cash so it’s definitely worth entering) so naturally we’ll be posting after the closing date.
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 2 Comments »