Posted by smiffy on 26th March 2009
A well-balanced smattering of general knowledge categories (and at the Trivial Pursuit, rather than Mastermind, level). A couple of Oxbridge college names cropped up early on while solving, which lured me briefly into a wild goose chase for a non-existent theme.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 26th March 2009
I found this pretty tough going, though Thursdays are generally the hardest weekday. I made a flying start with some of the across clues, but then slowed up, mainly because I thought that 25A was SNAILED and therefore talked myself out of 7D being an anagram! Nevertheless, some very nice clues here and I enjoyed the challenge.
Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 26th March 2009
Quite easy for a thursday I thought, but I was left with a couple of quibbles and uncertainties. These were balanced by the highly enjoyable 9ac, 11ac and 25ac.
Posted in Guardian | 24 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 26th March 2009
Some excellent misdirection in the definition parts in this puzzle. Solving time, 22 mins.
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 26th March 2009
Monday Prize Crossword on 16 March 2009
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 26th March 2009
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 14
Cincinnus gives us some particularly splendid double definitions this week (20D, 24D) and a generally excellent puzzle as usual.
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by Gaufrid on 25th March 2009
A belligerent puzzle from Cinephile today or, perhaps, not so much a puzzle as a lesson in military history. This post is a little later than usual because I have been trying, unsuccessfully, to resolve 31a and 7d. The puzzle itself was somewhat of a ‘battle’ in places, particularly the more obscure thematic entries, but overall quite enjoyable.
Posted in FT | 8 Comments »
Posted by John on 25th March 2009
Everything typically elegant and natural today.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | FEAT HERB RAINED — One of the signs of a good charade clue is that the long word is split into components that are not themselves suggested by the word. At first I wasn’t sure about ‘on’ and it looked like one of those rather cumbersome link-words that is there only for the wordplay, but in fact I think it’s just ‘rained’ = ‘poured water on’ — just |
| 8 | DR OP I N |
| 9 | ARMY ANTS — (many rats)* |
| 10 | FA(L LSO)FF |
| 11 | IN CANS |
| 12 | REP ENT{r}ANCE — this film‘s English title |
| 14 | B ASH |
| 16 | laST YEar |
| 17 | CO(L LATER)AL |
| 19 | FA(THE)R |
| 21 | CHARTIST — refers to Da Vinci’s Mappamundi |
| 23 | WIND DOWN — 2 defs |
| 24 | A STRID{e} |
| 25 | THE WEAKEST LINK — (he{c}k Kate Winslet)*, ‘being’ a noun |
| Down | |
| 1 | FIRM A (MEN) T |
| 2 | APPAL — “a Paul” |
| 3 | HANG-OUT — 2 defs I think — seems a bit loose and perhaps I’m missing something |
| 4 | ROAD-FUND LICENCE — (red could finance)* |
| 5 | R O MAINE |
| 6 | IRASCIBLE — (Blair sic {on}e)* |
| 7 | ELTON — L in (note)rev, ref Ben Elton and Elton John |
| 13 | EYE SHADOW — “I” S(HAD)OW |
| 15 | SLAPSTICK — (pals)rev stick |
| 17 | CORDOBA — (cab door)* |
| 18 | ADAM ANT |
| 20 | chAP IS Handling |
| 22 | T{a}U{n}T{s} TI{me} |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 25th March 2009
A fun puzzle from Brendan with a theme of name changes. I’m afraid I’m not likely to be able to update this post with any corrections until much later today.
Posted in Guardian | 51 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 24th March 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 24th March 2009
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in Guardian | 41 Comments »
Posted by Agentzero on 24th March 2009
Although these clues were not difficult, a number of them had admirably smooth surfaces. Dumas and Shakespeare turn up a few different times, but probably not enough to count as a theme. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 23rd March 2009
This is one of the easiest of the regular Azed specials for me – even though this explanation may sound complicated.
Posted in Azed | 10 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 23rd March 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 23rd March 2009
Another gentle start to the week from Rufus, with, typically, perhaps more cryptic [some rather more so than others!] and double definitions than some would like but some clever anagrams and nice surfaces.
Posted in Guardian | 36 Comments »