A rare weekday appearance from Monk. Not sure I’ve ever blogged one of his puzzles before, but I have to say I found this pretty tricky. There were a lot of very well hidden definitions and a lot of lifting and separating of clues/wordplay required. I also found there was no real way to crack 1A and 27A until I had nearly all the combined checking letters to be able to piece together the anagram fodder. All very enjoyable stuff nevertheless, though I wouldn’t want one of these every day!

Read the rest of this entry »

I really struggled with this, and was prepared to wreak mighty vengeance on Monk in this post – but, on reflection over a cup of coffee, I can see that most of the faults lie with my sub-par brain, rather than with the setter. True, many of the clues seem desperately over-complicated to me, but, on the whole, a fairly fair puzzle, I think.

Read the rest of this entry »

I found this quite tough going but, looking back, I can’t really see why.  The clues are all fair and straightforward, with the usual wit thrown in – I blame my cold for making me more than usually thick-headed.

Read the rest of this entry »

Monday Prize Crossword/21 Nov

Back to life, back to reality: a smoothie by Dante.

Read the rest of this entry »

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 19

Read the rest of this entry »