Inquisitor 1162 – Split Personality by Ikela
I started this blog before having solved the puzzle element of this week’s offering by Ikela, so we’ll start with the clued elements. The rubric told us that wordplay in all but six … Read more >>
Month: February 2011
Independent 7,586/Math
Always a pleasure to land a Math puzzle. The odd-looking grid suggested there’d be some kind of theme, but I didn’t spot anything obvious at first. I also crippled myself in the SE … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,612 / Jason
There were a number of extremely good clues in this puzzle, but also a few that seemed imprecise to me. The gems, I thought, were 13, 20 and 26 across. Across 1 KNUCKLE … Read more >>
Guardian 25240 Puck … Everything and then some more
Phew! What an assignment today. Puck employed almost every cryptic device and then some more. The way I solve a puzzle, I must stop and rationalise the workplay before I move on … … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic 586 / Beale
While I enjoyed this puzzle, I thought it was a bit on the hard side for a Quiptic. All definitions given are from Chambers 11th Edition. Most of the standard abbreviations used in … Read more >>
Guardian 25,239 – Rufus
A very easy Rufus today, where my main difficulty came with some less-than-brilliant cryptic definitions that seemed too obvious to be true. I’m a little short of time so please excuse the rather … Read more >>
Independent 7585 by Tees
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I thought this was quite difficult, mainly because of the longer phrases which ate up a lot of the grid and also a few … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1,093 (30/01/11)
A relatively tractable solve for the most part this week, with some rather playful clueing. I did have to check a small number of entries in Chambers though. Finally, 20dn required some creative … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1094: Quixote
The usual relatively easy Sunday solve from Quixote. And a rather hurried blog from me. Across 6 SCHOLASTIC Hot classic in translation – it’s educational *(Hot classic) 9 NAIL Slow creatures shedding outer … Read more >>
Everyman No. 3357 (30th January)
Nick: It’s me doing the blog this week, as Lorraine is a bit busy, but reading her notes, this weeks was pretty tough. As usual, thanks to Mr Everyman for a great crossword. Across … Read more >>
Genius 91 by Tramp
Solving time : about a day and a half. I found this hard, partly because of a grammatical error in the instructions which made them more obscure than was necessary. There were two … Read more >>
Azed 2018
Azed’s Plains are usually done at one sitting, even though that sitting can be very long indeed. This time. however, there were several clues that gave me trouble, both in getting them in … Read more >>
Indy 7578 (Sat 29-Jan) Anax
Congrats to Anax for a stonking puzzle that no doubt had a few in Derby scratching their collective heads over their pints. While I was struggling over this, I could imagine them all … Read more >>
Guardian Prize Puzzle No 25,232 by Araucaria – a river runs through it
Solving time: about an hour, although that left three clues unsolved. Many thanks to my neighbour and solving partner Timon, for his help with this and many other crosswords and for introducing me … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations No 951 Half and Half by Rustic
Half the clues are normal and half need alteration. Where a conflict arises, this must be resolved to produce a real word. Simplicity personified for an EV, or so it sounds. Will half … Read more >>