Guardian 24,129 (Sat 14 Jul)/Araucaria – Bulls and Bears
Solving time: 30 minutes, but needed to look up 17ac, made a mistake (4dn) and can’t fathom 18ac. I found this pretty difficult, and took a long time to work out what ‘5ac … Read more >>
Month: July 2007
FT – setters page updated
I’ve updated the setters page today with details about the FT setters.
Independent 6477 / Phi Pleasant stroll
Solving Time: 19 minutes Another reliable enjoyable puzzle from Phi. Nothing too taxing today, although 4 across held me up for a little while. Not too many anagrams today, either. ACROSS * = ANAGRAM … Read more >>
Independent 6472 (14-07-07)/Nimrod
The first thing you noticed about this puzzle was that some of the clues were prefixed and suffixed with “(see [another clue number])…” – one clue referred to another and that one to … Read more >>
Inquisitor 28/Schadenfreude – Changing Places
There aren’t many things more satisfying than that moment when solvers of the Inquisitor or The Listener experience when the device the setter has used to complicate the puzzle reveals itself. A light-bulb … Read more >>
Guardian 24134/Brendan – musical
I think the theme might be music since 26 clues out of 26 are related to music. Typical fine Brendanian surfaces: sensible and consistent. In order to understand themes, PeterB always recommends taking … Read more >>
Independent 6476/Scorpion – Eric and Ernie
No two ways about it, Scorpion’s tricky. Thursday is also the day of the week I have least time for solving and blogging so apologies that this is a little late. I cracked … Read more >>
Financial Times 12505/Dante
Across 1. OTT,A(W)A 9. PRO FIT 12. PLAYGOER 13. STANCE – A golf ref. 16. SCARECROWS (soccer wars)* 19. SPRING ROLL 20. FETA – fate* 23. MEADOW (a mowed)* 25. RE(LAPSE)D 27. TIDEMARK … Read more >>
FT 12513/Cinephile – south of the border
(Finally showed up on the FT site — couldn’t find paper copy). In his FT persona, Araucaria is hardly less… um… what’s the word? Challenging? Anyway, the usual breathtaking surfaces (one or two … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 909 by Quixote – a problem or two
Some difficulties, with this – any help appreciated – all covered below. (thanks Neildubya for explaining it) Solving time (if I’m right about the doubtful one): 24 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 … Read more >>
Financial Times 12514/Jason
Across 5 CREW in SS – I hesitated about filling this one in because I couldn’t see how “props” could be a definition for SCREWS. I’ve just looked it up and found there … Read more >>
Guardian 24,133/Araucaria – well content to finish this one!
A typical Araucaria crossword, which hinges on being able to solve one key clue. In this case the key answer was the one at 19ac. Once you have that worked out, the rest … Read more >>
Conforming to type
Has anyone else notice that the FT bloggers are always first to post, bright and early and reliable as a Swiss train, followed by the Indyites, while the Guardianistas (myself included) roll up haphazardly … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,504 by Mudd
Across 1. BACKFIRE – BACK + FIRE 5. ARCTIC – C in ARTIC (artic being an abbreviation of articulated lorry) 9. PECTORAL – anagram of CLEOPATR. One of the breast anagram indicators I’ve … Read more >>
Guardian 24132/Orlando – politicians past and present
Solving time approx. 20 mins. Another excellent offering from Orlando, with some very subtle definitions that had me struggling in places. I particularly liked 6A (a subject close to my heart) and 7D. … Read more >>