FT 12,635/Sleuth
Posted by smiffy on 7th December 2007
A well-balanced, but not too daunting puzzle. Just what the Doctor ordered for the morning-after-the-office-party, in my case.
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Archive for December 7th, 2007
Guardian 24254/Taupi
Posted by linxit on 7th December 2007
I’m a bit short of time today so this will be a less detailed than usual entry. Apologies in advance etc…
Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »
Independent 6592/Phi
Posted by neildubya on 7th December 2007
I’d read four or five clues before I realised that something odd was going on and at first I thought the wrong grid had been printed. Then I spotted that there was no Across or Down, just “Clues”. And it was only when I’d completed the grid that I saw the Nina: the unchecked letters in the top row and along the bottom (starting from the 25 square) spell out ADVENT CALENDAR. I’m guessing it wasn’t possible to create a workable grid that had 25 entries as that would have replicated an advent calendar exactly – one clue per door. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Independent 6597 – Phi - O God …
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 7th December 2007
Solving time: 10 minutes when I gave up …
… trying to work out 6D. I don’t know quite enough gods and ?A?A?A?A doesn’t help much. I guess the story is a SAGA, the Hindu god could be RAMA, and the Egyptian one could be RA, but that’s too much material it seems. So after searching a couple of god lists in vain, I surrender and wait for the name of the unknown god, or the revelation that I’ve completely misunderstood the clue. “Nice easy Phi”, thought I when I saw that this blogging slot was free. Serves me right! Part of the problem may be what an old Times champs rival of mine calls “vocalophobia” – a fear of vowels as the only checking letters, especially repeated common vowels.
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Beelzebub 928/Phi (25-11-07)
Posted by neildubya on 7th December 2007
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 11 | PROO[-f] – PROOfing something is a form of protection and PROO (or “pruh”) is a Scottish word used to direct or summon cattle. |
| 13 | E,MEN in EAST |
| 14 | (POTTER A GENIE)* – PRENEGOTIATE. With POTTER being part of the anagram, “harry” must have been irresistible as the anagram indicator. |
| 17 | RI in RUNG – RI is Rhode Island. |
| 18 | E,I,N E in NITS< – “eccentricity” has to be E but it’s not in the dictionaries I currently have access to. I assume it’s in Chambers but it seems like an odd thing to abbreviate. |
| 21 | HAR[-e] in MATAI – MATA HARI went in fairly quickly but the clue itself took a bit of working out. |
| 23 | WIT,HES – I think this is right. A WITHE can be a number of things but one of them is a handle for a tool, designed to lessen shock. I guess that counts as “protections for hands”. |
| 25 | (A MALAISE TOO C)* – Here’s how this clue got solved: |
Posted in Beelzebub | 1 Comment »
Inquisitor 48 – But how is it done? by Phi
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 7th December 2007
Solving time: about 90 mins, mostly without books.
A fairly easy puzzle this, without anything too fiendish as a last step. My biggest problem was leaving my copy on a train after writing up about half of this report. A couple of other Inquisitor bloggers came up trumps, so my panic was fairly brief.
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