I enjoyed this puzzle very much, with a good mix of clues, and a couple of answers that used words that were new to me. I thought that I had posted this at lunchtime. Neil has just alerted me that something had gone wrong – so apologies ….

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Another wonderful themed puzzle from Virgilius. All the across answers from French and quite a few references in the down clues too. As it happens, this blogger is very familiar with French so it was an unusually fast solve. The extra time gave me the opportunity to admire the excellent surface readings from the master.

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Now I know how one of regular commenters felt when we had a puzzle themed around Elvis. According to his Wikipedia entry, Terry 13A was the best-selling UK author in the 1990s and has sold something like 50 million books so I’m probably in a minority in never having read one of them. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a busy time for Maggie lately, dropping in on her old abode to see what colour Gordon’s painted the walls, meeting Rudolph Giuliani, and of course appearing in the Eye Crossword (though without her handbag). Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time – about 45 mins, with Chambers and Bradfords

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Solving time: 13:42

It felt as though I made fairly heavy weather of this; the long answers took longer than they should have, especially 11dn, and answers like MARSH GAS for ‘methane’ should have been instant.

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I believe this is the first Bradman puzzle I have attempted. It took me a while — longer than I would generally want to spend on a daily puzzle — perhaps because I am unused to the style, but I found it satisfying and challenging in parts. I was unable to get one answer (20D), am unsure about a second (27A) and cannot fully explain a third (12A). My favourite clues are 1A, 5A, 1D, 7D and 9D.

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I thought this was pretty tricky but I struggled with all but one of the long answers that form the perimeter of the grid, so that will have prevented me from really getting going. Most unlikely word of the puzzle: 9D, by a country mile. Read the rest of this entry »

A decent Friday puzzle with some tough nuts to crack. One name I’d never come across before, and required Google’s help, some humorous touches, and a little linked mini-theme including two phrases, one of which I’m not utterly convinced by.

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Solving time:  29 mins      I spotted a theme, I think, mentioned under the relevant clues.

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Quite a few long answers in this which made it a fairly quick solve. Naturally, there are a couple of answers which I don’t really understand: 13 and 15A. Oh, and 16D. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time: ages – at least 6 hours

This puzzle had 44 clues in total, 17 with misprints, and 16 to be treated somehow. That leaves 11 normal clues with no treatment. I’m sure there’s someone out there who had this done in an hour or so and then took Fido for a walk whistling a merry air. That person isn’t me. I’ve been fighting with this one for nearly a week as I write this, and still have one answer I can’t quite justify.

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A mixed bag for me today. A couple of non-dictionary phrases for a start, an answer I simply can’t get and some word play that I just don’t follow. There were some clever witty clues too!

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I found this puzzle on the easy side.     Solving time:  14 mins

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A typical fun crossword from Paul – an enjoyable challenge as he doesn’t allow the rules to get in the way of a good clue.

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