This was a entertaining, but aggressive crossword that took longer than it should have because I had  the wrong answer at 18d (KEG) for a while.  I thought to begin with that 18d was TUN (a large cask, sounds like [say] a ton weight), so I was wondering about the meaning of the middle letters of ACCRINGTON STANLEY for some time.  Eventually the penny dropped and the words PEN, POCKET, STANLEY and BREAD made some sense, following on from the one unadjusted across answer at 16a GET THE KNIVES OUT.  All types of knives had to be removed from the other across answers to make them fit the grid. I think that all the various knives were well known.

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I enjoyed doing this none-too-difficult puzzle.

Across

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Somewhat of a Compu-Indo-Scots vocabulary this week. I did this rather fast (for me!) at an airport lounge… guessed some answers from the definition in several cases and left the wordplay for later. That is, now. Wish me luck. Thanks to Rishi a couple of wordplays clarified in the notes.
Across Read the rest of this entry »

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

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Solving time: 10:27

This grid is normally a stinker (it has twelve 9-letter words each with only four checked letters and its four quarters are connected by just a single square each at the centre) but it was more than justified in this case: all of the 9-letter words begin with ‘A’ and end in ‘T’ (all in unchecked cells) which is a pretty impressive feate of construction.

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I made a rather slow start on this typically pleasant Phi crossword, but when I saw that it was all As in the top unches and Zs at the bottom things became easier. Quite an achievement by Phi to fit all those Zs in, but was he doing more than this? I can’t see anything in the side unches, although it looks as if there was initially an attempt to have Ys on the right. Read the rest of this entry »

A generous helping of long anagrams and letter picking clues in this puzzle. There is also a ‘dense’ mini-theme going on (7D, 8D, 9D).

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Mostly very doable, but with a few tough ones and a couple I don’t quite understand. The excellent charade in 21a, 1d, 2d is particularly noteworthy

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A tricky challenge from Monk that took me a little while to solve.  The clues were fair and the surfaces were excellent, but some of the answers or definitions were fairly obscure – e.g. NURR, FLABBY, FABIAN, FESS, CLEAVE and NEAR THE BONE.

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This one took me far longer than it should have done! Having fairly confidently put in ‘garnet’ for 36a (though not too happy about cage=net), I had the grid complete, including nine clashes, with the exception of 11d which looked as if it had to be ‘girl’, but I could not see how this could be obtained from the clue. Much head-scratching, followed by a decision to have a break from the puzzle.

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An Araucaria-style alphabetical jigsaw with a serious twist! No clue numbers, but the normal clues were presented in alphabetical order of their solutions and answers were to be fitted in where they would go.

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Other than a couple of (literally) lavatorial answers at 1A and 18, I can find little comment-worthy stuff in this puzzle.  In the double-edged words of an erstwhile history teacher of mine, “It’s good….as far as it as goes.”

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An excellent puzzle from Nestor who I had the pleasure of meeting at Sloggers and Betters 5 in London last week. A bit easier than I expected – in particular I got some of the longer answers from the definitions. Solving time, 23 mins.

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A nice straightforward puzzle today, perhaps a bit more straightforward than most Thursdays.  Quite a lot of anagram and straightforward charades.

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Solving time, 19 mins. The usual pleasing puzzle.

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