Posted by RatkojaRiku on 15th December 2010
In my view, a typical Dac puzzle: medium degree of difficulty, with sound clues that keep one guessing just long enough before resolving themselves in a perfectly satisfactory manner. I even learnt a thing or two, which is always the icing on the cake with a daily cryptic – the cricketer in 10a was unknown to me. Some deceptive wordplay, e.g. ‘doctor’ used as a verb in 24a, rather than as an anagram indicator or abbreviation. My personal favourite is 16d, both for the wordplay and for the Europhile sentiment of the surface reading.
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Posted in Independent | 16 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 15th December 2010
A festive theme from Cinephile today in a puzzle that had me scratching my head at times, not to get the answer but to unravel the wordplay. There is still one clue that has defeated me and one I’m not sure about. Hopefully someone will help me out with these.
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Posted in FT | 14 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 15th December 2010
‘The best laid schemes … ‘ My plan was to stay up and solve this puzzle when it was published and provide an early blog, for once. Alas, I fell asleep at about the crucial moment and consequently overslept, so the blog is even later than usual – and it’s not nearly so pretty as Duncan’s!
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Posted in Guardian | 42 Comments »
Posted by Hihoba on 15th December 2010
I’m stepping into the shoes of Peter B for this blog as he has work-related problems that prevent him from spending time on this activity. Being retired I don’t, thank goodness!
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Posted in Inquisitor | 6 Comments »