Inquisitor 32/Loda – A La Natasha
As far as Inquisiotrs go, this was pretty straightforward. A few recent puzzles have been of the “extra word in the clue” type, so I am becoming accustomed to them. In this example, … Read more >>
Month: August 2007
Independent on Sunday 913 by Quixote
Solving time: 19 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 T(RAJ)AN A Roman Emperor Raj = British rule in India 4 OBSERVER A competing Sunday newspaper 9 COT … Read more >>
Independent 6500 by Nimrod – Tribute to the King
A puzzle timed for the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, who to this blogger remains the King – for his earlier music and films especially. There were 7 lines of … Read more >>
Guardian 24,157, Orlando: I done it wrong
It was mostly quite easy, but with a fiendish top right corner that held me up for ages, and I messed up on two clues early on, which didn’t help. Only finished properly … Read more >>
Azed 1836 – Plain Competition Puzzle
Solving time: 57 minutes A nice friendly monthly puzzle from Azed, with some clever clueing and no need to resort to brain straining themes or devices. I wonder whether indicating hyphenated answers would … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,528 by Cinephile — Fiendishly Easy
Actually for me the difficulty of this puzzle was fairly average, leavened a bit by a typical kind of Cinephile theme, fiends. I have enjoyed puzzles by John Graham (Cinephile/Araucaria) for many years … Read more >>
Independent 6499 by Dac
Solving time: 16 mins < = reversed * = anagram ACROSS 1 Tom SHARPE “Sharp” 4 B (LACK S) E A be = live on the borders = outside 9 RISQUE … Read more >>
Guardian 24156/Paul
Well, this wasn’t too difficult at all, much to my surprise. I forgot to set the timer going, but I solved it in around 15 or 16 minutes. There were still some tricky … Read more >>
Independent 6498 by Merlin
A very pleasing puzzle, which I found quite easy. Solving time: 22 mins * = anagram < = reverse ACROSS 9 OVERT RUMP Ruff (a term from the card game bridge, I … Read more >>
Financial Times 12536/Armonie
Just a short blog for this puzzle as many of the clues don’t really need much explaining. One thing you could never accuse Armonie of is unnecessary complexity in his clueing as the … Read more >>
Guardian 24155 Brendan
This didn’t take me very long, and was short on elation in the solving. Across 9 C EASE F IRE C for constant, ire is anger, ease is to moderate and f for … Read more >>
Sloggers and Betters 3 – a pub and meal evening
As older readers will know, we’ve had a couple of evening meetings at London pubs for contributors to and readers of this blog, Times for the Times and Tony Sever’s RTC3. Both times, we’ve also … Read more >>
Guardian 24,154, Rufus: That’s neat that’s neat
My favourite clues combine Rufus’s trademark cryptic definitions with wordplay, so as to keep you guessing for longer – 5 and 11 across require unravelling, whereas 17 across couldn’t be anything else. ACROSS: … Read more >>
Independent 6497/Morph
Across 9 (+M)OBS,TER(-M) – an “obsolete expression” would be an OBS TERM. Move the back (M) to the front to get MOBSTER. 10 TO(Y for P)SHOP – I initally thought the fashion retailer … Read more >>
Private Eye/Cyclops 345 – Two places down under …
… and two erections that were not “up” – giving the lie to my pronouncement a few weeks ago that “erection” often means “up” in the Eye puzzle. Some good examples in here … Read more >>