Guardian 24324/ Araucaria Friday Fun
I thought this was a terrific crossword, witty, entertaining and erudite. The bad news was that though I solved it I feel that sometimes I had answers without full understanding. So, more than … Read more >>
Month: February 2008
Independent 6668/Phi
Across 1 (WAS)* in DON – Les DAWSON, my favourite comedian when I was young. 10 WING,C,HAIR 11 TO[-l]KE[-i]N – Tolkein was the first name that sprung to mind when I saw “fantasy … Read more >>
Independent 6663/Scorpion
I have a number of crossword wishes waiting to be carried out by the crossword genie and one of them is for Scorpion puzzles to appear more often. Yes, they are very tough … Read more >>
Inquisitor 60 – Proceedings by Zero
The title – Proceedings – alludes to ‘Carry on’, so this crossword was an entertaining romp down the history of ‘Carry On …….’ films, of which there were twenty-nine original and one compilation … Read more >>
FT 12,703 by Viking
An excellent puzzle, with great manipulation of letters in anagrams in many cases to give &lit clues where the whole clue, as well as providing the wordplay, also gives the definition of the … Read more >>
Independent 6667 / Nimrod
Solving time: 25 minutes. Quite devious from young Nimrod today with a couple of ambiguous solutions until you get the intersecting answers. Very enjoyable with a couple of forehead slapping moments. ACROSS (*) = … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 941 by Quixote (24 Feb 2008)
The usual pleasing puzzle from Quixote. Quite easy, I found, solving time, 14 mins. Would recommend these puzzles to beginners, clues self-contained with little cultural knowledge required (either classical or modern) to solve. … Read more >>
Guardian 24,323 Shed : Apologies to Dafydd Gonzales …
… the Hispanic Welshman who would have been insulted by both 9a and 4d. The only bad thing about Shed crosswords are that they don’t come along often enough for my liking. Clever, … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,693 by Mudd
An easier-than-usual Mudd this week. Across 1. SHELLAC – HELL (very hot) in SAC (bag) 5. MINARET – ERA (time) reversed in MINT (perfect) 9. GRUFF – [ribbin]G + RUFF (frill) 10. REPUGNANT … Read more >>
Independent 6666 by Math
A very, satisfying, toughish, puzzle with the puzzle number used thematically. Solving time, 29 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 4 KEBA BS (bake)* bs = US abbrev for ‘bullshit’ 9 … Read more >>
Guardian 24322/Chifonie – one letter at a time
Many clues with the parts of speech and/or meanings in the wordplay and surface surprisingly different which made this quite an enjoyable puzzle. Quite a few single letter abbrevs as well — not … Read more >>
Guardian 24321/Paul
Solving time 16:22 Another feast of libertarianism from Paul, but I thought the long answer starting at 17 was just brilliant. Some rather whimsical answers too today – 21D had me scratching my … Read more >>
Independent 6665/Dac
Rather harder than usual for Dac, I thought, but as usual it’s full of very nice clues. Across 1 TOSH – 2 mngs, not helped by the fact that the mate meaning is … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,701 (Quark)
Across 1 SECOND THOUGHTS: SECOND (back) THOUGHTS (ideas) 9 ERSATZ: anagram of RATES + Z (last letter) 10 BANDSMAN: &Lit 13 ARCANE: CAN in anagram of ERA 15 SHED: double definition 16 CROUTON: … Read more >>
Independent Crossword 6664 by Mordred
* = anag, < = reversed, () = dropped letter A good mixture of clues, with some quite tough ones (like 8 across) and some fairly easy. I quite enjoyed it, but it … Read more >>