Posted by smiffy on 7th January 2010
This was something of a rope-a-dope experience for me, as I played Foreman to Bradman’s Ali. After charging through the first half – thinking the setter to be unusually tame today - I toiled through the latter stages and was finally defeated by a couple (lucky guess at 1A, wrong guess at 18D, hopeful guess at 29A). I’ll consider myself well and truly “stung by a butterfly.”
Posted in FT | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 7th January 2010
Nice to get a Punk puzzle for my first blog of 2010. I found this on the easier side as Thursdays go, though none the less enjoyable for it. A very good spread of clues, 18A and 13D being my faves.
Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 7th January 2010
Christmas Prize Puzzle on 24 December.
“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the grid. Geographic isometry the Reverend had hid.”
Posted in FT | 9 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 7th January 2010
A very enjoyable puzzle from Virgilius. For my own part, found this to be one of the easiest Saturday puzzles I can remember, finishing unaided in roughly 20 minutes – although I don’t time these things, so this may be inaccurate as well as vague! The trickier clues were resolved easily enough thanks to the mini-theme of “halves”, based around 13, 15, and 19.
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »
Posted by Eileen on 7th January 2010
I’ve been very fortunate today – one of my favourite setters, who did not disappoint, giving us a pleasant literary theme, that was not too dominant, with some deft interlinking and flawless cluing, including some impressive anagrams, several &lit. A most enjoyable puzzle – thank you, Brendan.
Posted in Guardian | 46 Comments »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 7th January 2010
Oddly, I had just completed a Shark puzzle in Magpie before downloading the EV and discovering that it too was a Shark. I found the Magpie puzzle relatively easy but this one proved more difficult. Some of the clues had me using electronic aids (ACS and Chambers on the iPod) to find the answers that fitted and then working backwards. That’s not something I like doing but I did find a good handful of clues that tricky.
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | 2 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 7th January 2010
There is something to look for here, referred to after the clue explanations, solving time 22 mins.
Posted in Independent | 1 Comment »