A good puzzle from Gozo and as always an entertaining and educational puzzle to blog.

Read the rest of this entry »

A thorough working-out of a theme by Brenda, which I found very satisfying.
Read the rest of this entry »

Dac is presumably going to appear on Saturday, and instead of a fairly easy task I found that we have a setter with whom I usually have some trouble. But either I’m getting better (which I doubt at my age) or yesterday’s Anax and today’s Tees, both of which would usually set insuperable problems, were easier than usual, for they were both done fairly quickly by my standards. Perhaps it’s that when solving online one can use the Reveal button when absolutely stuck: I doubt whether I’d have finished this at all actually, because one or two are still a mystery to me and I would never have guessed them.

Read the rest of this entry »

The rubric states that extra letters in the wordplay of down clues identify an achievement, one feature of which is symbolically represented in the grid, together with the full name of its creator. All elements must be highlighted (46 cells in all).
 
(My first reading of the rubric led me to think that both “achievement” and “creator” would be given by the extra letters, not that the latter was to be found in the completed grid.)

Read the rest of this entry »

I had a good chat with Anax on Saturday night at the Derby Sloggers &Betters so it was a surprise that he didn’t say he was the setter for today (let alone give any hints). OK so hi to B&J and here’s a bit more for you. I can’t see a definite theme today, there’s a lot of long multi part answers and a musical twist in places and glorious &lits.

Read the rest of this entry »

This was a sound crossword where the wordplay was clear and the definitions were fairly unambiguous.  There were very few surplus link words in the clues.  

Read the rest of this entry »

After Paul last week, I get The Master today. My cup runneth over Today’s offering is another potpourri of delightful wordplay (some of which eluded me) It is, as to be expected, devilishly challenging and at the same time, entertaining when you see the light.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gentle, pleasing, puzzle from Quixote, solved very fast for me, 16 mins.     A few words that I did not know or had forgotten but was able to get them quite quickly from the clear wordplay.

Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first Quiptic I have blogged – as a one-off stand-in for Pierre today — and I was delighted to discover it was an Arachne.

Read the rest of this entry »

A lovely crossword to start the week, with some very elegant clues.  Trickier than the usual monday Rufus, but still with enough easy starters to get a beginner going, so just right methinks.  Unfortunately I’m going out early today so I had to rush this one and could not give it the time it deserved.  I like to sip my crosswords like fine wine, rather than trying to ‘down them in one’ for a fast time

Read the rest of this entry »

Perhaps a medium-paced week for Beelzebub, so not the easiest of puzzles by any means. Still, with a bit of persistence, I managed all but a couple of answers without resorting to aids. Of course, Chambers came out to help finish things off and put the blog together.

Read the rest of this entry »

I arrived rather late, because I am suffering with a dental abscess (don’t try it at home), but still managed to take a few photos:

Read the rest of this entry »

I find Hypnos tends to be one of the tougher of the IoS setters, but thankfully – from a blogger’s point of view, at least – this one was quite manageable. The North-East corner did hold me up a little though, perhaps be 5dn wasn’t familiar to me.

Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  Good morning one and all,

Read the rest of this entry »

Azed produces these specials on non-competition days from time to time. This is one of his regulars, none the worse for that.

Read the rest of this entry »