With apologies for the tardy posting. Especially as I thought this was a really well-balanced and cohesive puzzle that merits plaudits or discussion. The surface readings in particular were what caught my eye. With just a quick glance at the page now, I can see 4A, 28A and 17D as examples of such. Here’s hoping Alberich becomes a more regular fixture in the FT firmament; he’s definitely more of a craftsman and more deserving than one or two of the incumbents.

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Apologies for the comparative lack of commentary – I’m a bit pushed for time today.  Great puzzle, as always from Nestor. Read the rest of this entry »

A typically nice crossword, but trickier than usual for Phi. Some long words were slow to come. Read the rest of this entry »

A remarkable grid with four 15 letter clues going down and lots of inventive and entertaining cluing… Read the rest of this entry »

My initial reading of the preamble left me confused. Were the two word unclued entries spread over two lights each or just one? The other two entries clued by extra words, were they two of the six unclued lights or was there some overlap? No worries, just move on to the solving and think about the directly unclued lights later. Even that wasn’t so simple. Three clues with no definition, four clues with an extra word and all down clues with extra letters resulting from the word play. Could any of the first seven clues be down clues? That seems harsh so I’ll assume they are across clues and are distinct.

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Blimey, what a corker!

Several new words (including two of the dreaded Spenserian ones), a theme that was in code, answers to be both altered AND encoded. I almost gave up before starting!

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