Solving time, 14 mins

* = anagram

ACROSS

1 DEad SO LATE

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There’s a Nina here which I spotted during solving but only just worked out what it’s about. From the top left-hand corner we have GABRIELLE, BREE, SUSAN, LYNETTE and EDIE (the first E is also the last E in LYNETTE), who are all 22/26. Maybe Merlin’s a fan of the show! Read the rest of this entry »

After a rather contentious week, I was a bit apprehensive about what to expect for my blogging slot today, so it was quite a relief to get this fairly straightforward but enjoyable puzzle from Orlando. There were a couple of slightly obscure references (9ac, 10ac, 19dn, and perhaps 15dn for younger solvers), but clear and accurate clueing meant these weren’t too much of an obstacle. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving Lest We Forget in the Independent’s Inquisitor series I mistakenly guessed that it might be about the Armistice, I was fooled. On this occasion, Remembrance Sunday, it seemed that there might be an Armistice theme, I wasn’t wrong. I solved three of the first four clue and had A?ES from the missing characters. It had to be AGE SHALL NOT WEARY THEM, NOR THE YEARS CONDEMN. At 38 characters it was the right length. This line is taken from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon, from part of the poem read at the Remembrance Day services.

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A mixed bag today with some very easy clues and some that required a little more thought. Overall, probably tending towards the simpler end of the FT range of difficulty (unlike yesterday’s). A few of the of the clues/answers have word associations that are difficult to justify by strict dictionary definitions (it depends upon one’s degree of pedantry but this is only a minor quibble since it does not affect the ‘solvability’.

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Ho (of Hihoba) had inconsiderately gone on holiday this week, so Ba and I were left to struggle with this, and struggle we did!

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