Guardian 24,455/Araucaria – Toil and Trouble
Raced through a few easier clues, and then struggled a bit with this. Eventually got the four longer references to 22 (RHYME) around the edges of the grid, which helped a little. Had … Read more >>
Month: July 2008
Independent 6799/Mordred
An impressive puzzle where every clue has a sporty feel to it (although 2 and 3 seem to be stretching things a bit). Some very clever stuff here and more than one excellent … Read more >>
FINANCIAL TIMES, no.12834 set by SATORI, July 31 2008
A WEEDY PADDOCK This one gave me a few headaches, particularly the word play of 30a, and SATORI led me cleverly astray in a few clues. ACROSS 1. RESIST – (‘rest’- to include … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 963 by Quixote (27 Jul 2008)
Solving time, just under 20 mins. * = anagram < = reversed 1 DISSEMBLANCE SE in (Lib Dems can)* 9 L EASE L END Usually known as Lend-Lease but both alternatives are in … Read more >>
FINANCIAL TIMES 12,824 by Mudd (19 July)
Perhaps slightly harder to get into than some FT crosswords but once started there were no major difficulties, apart from 26a which took me a while to see the wordplay even though the answer … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,825 – Dante
From FT Monday Prize Crossword 21st July 2008 dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = … Read more >>
Independent 6798/Dac
One or two I’m not quite sure about but a typically high-class thing from Dac. Across 1 BAND AGED 6 PAGODA – I think this is (do gap)rev. a, although I’m not sure. … Read more >>
FINANCIAL TIMES 12,833 by IO
The on-line image was smaller than usual today and I couldn’t read some of the clues either on-screen or when printed out (normal size or enlarged) so I had to actually buy a … Read more >>
Guardian 24,454 – Pasquale
* = anagram () = removed [] = charade “” = homophone cd = cryptic definition dd = double definition Medium difficulty but very entertaining with some inventive cluing (9A is a favourite), … Read more >>
Independent 6,797/Virgilius
I found this pretty tough going, not least because I completely failed to see what was going on until very late on. The theme is the Old Testamant (6D), books of which can … Read more >>
Financial Times 12832 / by Quark
I solved Ac 7,10,12,15,18,20,24,25,29 when I had to move to the Dn set where I got 6,7,8,15,25,16,19,29 before all the others. The top left corner was the last to be completed. Last Tuesday … Read more >>
Guardian 24,453/Paul – pride of place
Paul’s name always tells us that the puzzle will be tough but fun, and so it was with this one. It looked particularly daunting at first with some long answers and lots of … Read more >>
Guardian 24,452 – Arachne
dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram I have just been told that this … Read more >>
Independent 6796 by Merlin
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed An anagram-heavy puzzle from Merlin with some good long anagrams and a couple of excellent &literals. There were a couple (17 across and 19 down) I didn’t completely follow. Across … Read more >>
Azed 1886
Solving time : about a day (but it was my birthday, so I was distracted). Loads of unfamiliar words this week, and some excellent surface readings (e.g. 19 across). I found the south-west … Read more >>