Independent on Sunday 1032 by Quixote – 22 Nov 2009
Posted by nmsindy on 26th November 2009
Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Archive for November, 2009
Financial Times 13,235 – Cincinnus
Posted by Uncle Yap on 26th November 2009
Monday Prize Crossword on 16 November 2009
dd = double definition
dud = duplicate definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Financial Times 13,234 by Cinephile
Posted by Pete Maclean on 26th November 2009
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 14
I can’t say I found this an easy puzzle but I did get it completed fairly quickly. Only clue clue, 13A, strikes me as notable and I can pick minor holes in a few others.
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Independent 7211 by Dac
Posted by nmsindy on 25th November 2009
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Financial Times 13,243 / Cinephile
Posted by Gaufrid on 25th November 2009
A themed puzzle revolving around Washington and Berlin. Tricky in places, partly due to the significant number of cryptic definitions. I am not completely sure that I have interpreted 22d correctly so any alternative suggestions would be welcome.
Posted in FT | 4 Comments »
Guardian 24866 / Pasquale
Posted by mhl on 25th November 2009
I found this rather hard work, but with lots of excellent clues – 25 across in particular.
Posted in Guardian | 30 Comments »
Independent 7,210 by Tyrus
Posted by Simon Harris on 24th November 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.
Posted in Independent | 18 Comments »
Financial Times 13,242 / Jason
Posted by Agentzero on 24th November 2009
Unfortunately the grid that appeared with this puzzle was incorrect. There are two blacked-out squares that should not have been blacked out: the square between what is given in the grid as 13 across and 14 across, and the square between what is given in the grid as 23 across and 24 across. If these are unblacked and the lights renumbered accordingly, everything makes sense, but I suspect many solvers will have given up and gone on to something else before getting this far.
Posted in FT | 13 Comments »
Guardian 24865 – Gordius
Posted by Uncle Yap on 24th November 2009
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in Guardian | 49 Comments »
Guardian 24,864 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 23rd November 2009
A decent Monday puzzle with a couple of weakish cryptic definitions. I guess it’s hard to come up with ‘easy’ CDs!
Posted in Guardian | 19 Comments »
Independent 7203 by Glow-worm
Posted by NealH on 23rd November 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 8 Comments »
Private Eye/Cyclops 404 – Error: Not found
Posted by beermagnet on 23rd November 2009
That is, surface reading not found.
After doing a lot of crosswords I tend to read clues for their cryptic meaning without noticing, or should I say savouring, the surface reading. An example of this is 13A here:
Bum, almost round isn’t wobbling – flaming criminal (8)
I did not notice the excellent surface meaning till re-reading it for this blog. That’s one of the reasons I like blogging. When solving this I ignored the punctuation and read “Bum almost” (giving ARS[e] – what else could it be in this crossword) and registered “flaming criminal” as the def. so ARSONIST leapt out, the wordplay easily put to bed, but at the time I hadn’t noticed the little vignette, and social comment(?), that Cyclops had painted.
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 5 Comments »
Azed 1955
Posted by Andrew on 22nd November 2009
An Azed of mixed difficulty, I found. I sailed through about three quarters of it with trouble at all, including most of the five long answers, but made much heavier weather of the last few clues.
Posted in Azed | 9 Comments »
Everyman 3294
Posted by Arthur on 22nd November 2009
Hopefully nothing too hard here. For some reason I wanted 15ac to be ALTAR for a while (A large being AL and in front of church being the definition) but after drawing various blanks on where TAR could have come from I moved on and saw the error of my ways! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Everyman | 1 Comment »
Independent 7202 by Bannsider
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 21st November 2009
Solving time: about 23 minutes
I found this a challenging puzzle despite getting the long answer on first look. I hope most other solvers got it without too much trouble – if not, I can imagine a pretty slow solve. This puzzle is full of inventive wordplay, sometimes pushing the boundaries a bit to get there. As the result is that the clues are fresh and entertaing, that’s fine with me.
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »