Posted by PeeDee on 13th April 2013
I enjoyed this very much, it has the stamp of a Paul puzzle all over it. My favourite was 7dn for its intriguing simplicity. Thank you Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 11 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 12th April 2013
A very enjoyable puzzle from Puck, with lots of clever and tricky clueing. I thought 14a was particularly good (after I realised it wasn’t just a cryptic definition), but there were many others I could point to.
Posted in Guardian | 31 Comments »
Posted by PeterO on 10th April 2013
The puzzle may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25918.
Posted in Guardian | 35 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 9th April 2013
After an A1 superb start, the puzzle sort of fizzled out, with starts and splutters, apparently with a mini-theme of the author moving home soon. Cannot say this is Boatman’s best; but we can’t have pâté de foie gras every day, can we? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 22 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 8th April 2013
The familiar Rufus medley of anagrams and double and cryptic definitions. Some witty misdirection and the usual silky surfaces made this an entertaining puzzle for me – a couple of unusual words, but easily gettable. Many thanks, Rufus, for the smiles.
Posted in Guardian | 15 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 6th April 2013
I’m well into my fifth year of blogging and I’ve never before landed an Araucaria Bank Holiday Prize puzzle, and so it was with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that I looked forward to this one. At first sight, it appeared [even] more fiendish than his habitual double grids, since the instructions stated, ‘Two operatic bicentenaries occur this year: one composer and solutions relating to him go into grid A; solutions relating to the other (who is not named) go into grid B. Clues for both grids have been run together and either part may belong to either grid.’ Usually, as I recall, the clues have run in order of their appearance in the grid – and so I foresaw trouble ahead.
Posted in Guardian | 39 Comments »
Posted by PeterO on 5th April 2013
The crossword may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25914.
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Posted by scchua on 4th April 2013
As with all Araucaria puzzles, I had to keep plugging away at it, and even then had to use the cheat button for the last one in. There is an unusual construction for some of the clues with “24″ mentioned in them. For these, what is to be entered into the grid is the answer to the wordplay minus the answer to 24 down, which I have indicated by ****. Thanks to Araucaria for the challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues. [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links to the puzzle. Please enclose any comments on them in double brackets. Thank you.]]
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 3rd April 2013
It’s a while since we saw a Bonxie puzzle, so I was glad to see his name today. Some interesting cluing, including one [8dn] where I thought I was going to have to ask for help but, mercifully, it came to me as I wrote the blog. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, so many thanks, Bonxie.
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 2nd April 2013
Quite a fair to middling kind of puzzle with the expected Gordian obscurities thrown in here and there. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 1st April 2013
No April foolery here (unless I’ve been fooled..), just the usual type of puzzle we expect from Rufus; if anything rather easy even by his standards, apart from one possibly obscure word that is rather unhelpfully clued.
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 30th March 2013
A fun start to an otherwise cold, bleak Saturday morning with snow falling and a near gale force wind blowing. I was fortunate that, as I often do, I tackled the clues in reverse order which meant that I quickly came across, and solved, 14dn.
Posted in Guardian | 27 Comments »
Posted by PeterO on 29th March 2013
The crossword may be found at http://www.guardian.co.uk/crosswords/cryptic/25908.
Posted in Guardian | 33 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 28th March 2013
A very enjoyable puzzle from Paul, which caused a bit of head-scratching in the parsing department but I managed to get there in the end, apart from one clue that I’m not at all sure of. Plenty of smiles and ahas for me this morning – many thanks, Paul
Posted in Guardian | 35 Comments »
