Posted by smiffy on 28th January 2010
A new(ish?) setter - Styx seems to be very fastidious about the surface reading of the clues, as these are universally “natural” and concise. However, this flawlessness is almost to a fault in places, where the wordplay (e.g. 18A, 22A) or difficulty (11A, 23A, 6D) ends up slightly compromised as a result. So (with an eye to the Winter Olympics just around the corner) I’d score this as 5.9 for Style and 5.4 for Technical Merit.
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Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 28th January 2010
We haven’t had many Tyrus puzzles, but he is for my money by far the hardest setter on the Indy team. I spent an hour tackling this online last night and managed to solve all but 10 clues. I was very pleased with that, but I then spent a further 50 mins on the bus with it this morning and got absolutely no further! So, in the interests of there actually being a blog, I’ve had to resort to the Reveal button.
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Posted in Independent | 13 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 28th January 2010
As regular readers will know, I (and others) am not a big fan of Gordius, and while there’s nothing particularly inspiring in this puzzle, I didn’t find much to object to either, apart from a few minor niggles noted below.
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Posted in Guardian | 27 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 28th January 2010
Something to look out for here, referred to after the clue explanations. Solving time, 21 mins.
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Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 28th January 2010
Monday Prize Crossword on 18 January 2010
Another easy introduction to the FT week. This puzzle has a wide variety of devices and would be ideal training ground for newbies.
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Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 28th January 2010
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 16
I found this puzzle a good bit harder than the average Cincinnus, especially the top-right corner. I got 5A and 7D quickly but the rest of that section took a while. I particularly like 1D, 5D and 21D.
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Posted in FT | 2 Comments »