Financial Times 13,369 – Mudd
Monday Prize Crossword on 26 April 2010 A gentle week opener with many different devices and mostly with lovely surface reading. Easy but enjoyable. ACROSS 1 STUBBORN Cha of STUB (dog-end, small piece … Read more >>
Month: May 2010
Financial Times 13,368
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 24 Here we have a few rather standard clues (6A, 25A) along with a few gems (10A, 11A and 21D). As usual, I found it … Read more >>
Independent 7,348 by Dac
The usual quality Wednesday puzzle from Dac, if a little tougher than some weeks. I failed at 1ac, at least, though everything else fell into place steadily enough. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,377 / Aardvark
Some rather tricky wordplay from Aardvark today with quite a few answers being formed from a combination of an anagram and/or parts of words. On the first run through the clues I thought … Read more >>
Guardian 25,002 / Chifonie
This is a fairly typical Chifonie puzzle, largely made up of charades and straightforward insertions. There is one clue that I particularly liked and, I’m afraid, one that, however good the rest of … Read more >>
Independent 7,347/Math
Always a pleasure to land a puzzle by Math, who is one of my favourite setters in the Indy stable. You can always expect some music references and other assorted pop culture, as … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,376 / Armonie
A good puzzle from Armonie. As alwyas, the clues are concise and generally have smooth, natural surface readings. I wasn’t excited about any of the two-word anagrams but I particularly enjoyed 3, 10 and … Read more >>
Guardian 25,001 – Orlando
As usual, a very fair, amusing and not-too-hard offering from Orlando aka Cincinnus, a regular in the FT Saturday spot. A very good morning’s entertainment ACROSS 1 BUCKBOARD Cha of BUCK (American dollar … Read more >>
Independent 7346 by Virgilius
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Another brilliant themed puzzle by Virgilius. The theme was set out in clue 14 (“marginal seats”) and all the words along the perimeter of … Read more >>
Guardian 25,000 – Enigmatist
With no disrespect to Enigmatist, I was surprised to see him as the setter of this momentously-numbered puzzle: like others I was expecting an Araucaria special, or perhaps a Rufus in honour of … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 82, Lavatch: Regression to the mean
An entertaining puzzle from Lavatch — and not too difficult once you spotted what was happening. Where a clash occurred, you needed to 1a,25 — use the letter alphabetically half-way between the two … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1,053 (25/04/10)
Brilliant, finally a whole Beelzebub completed without recourse to references, and in reasonably good time too. Whilst I’d like to think I’m getting better, it seems more likely that this was a relatively … Read more >>
Everyman No. 3317 (25th April)
Lorraine: Nice easy jog along this week, 20 across had me going for a while as I didn’t think of loaded as having lots of money, when I eventually twigged I did laugh … Read more >>
Azed 1978
The usual Azed, full of neat and tightly-constructed clues. Across 1 KEKS — keks are trousers and kex is a dry hollow herbaceous stalk 4 POPESHIP — (hopes)* in pip, and the Pope … Read more >>
Guardian 24,993 (Sat 24 April)/Paul – Fast food
Solving time: 5 minutes A welcome return for Paul to the Saturday slot. For a prize puzzle this was surprisingly straightforward but still very enjoyable. It also made me very hungry with so … Read more >>