Never knowingly undersolved
Thanks to Provis. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Exclude man with a head scarf (7) BANDANA : BAN(to exclude) + DAN(a man’s name) plus(with) A. 5 It is found in skull contents … Read more >>
*=anagram [] = removed e.g. char[m]=char ()=abbreviation e.g. A(mpere)=a Hom. = homophone A well constructed and on the whole precisely clued puzzle, 4 being the only one you might slightly question because of … Read more >>
Rufus gets a Bank Holiday break and Chifonie steps in from the bench, with a typically straightforward but elegant and well-constructed puzzle. Thanks to Chifonie. Across 1. … Read more >>
Following puzzles by Ballard, Mitz, Dalibor and Neil, the latter’s second puzzle – an alphabetical – will be the final Cambridge blog. For those who still want to give it a go, click here: Neil 2 @ Cambridge .
Was it my imagination or was this week’s Beelzebub a little different in style to usual? I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it seemed that more, shall we say, informal … Read more >>
After my run of specials, it’s almost a relief to have “just” a Plain Azed to blog. I didn’t get off too lightly, though: I did about three-quarters of this quite quickly and … Read more >>
The preamble for Genius 142, when you can work your way through the hotch-potch of ‘temporary’ (?) workarounds the Grauniad have built around this ‘non-standard’ puzzle which has been there for 10-plus years, … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3577.
Top puzzle, this one, imho. There’s one I can’t parse, though. Kairos has got the knack of what most folk expect from the IoS crossword. Nothing too obscure; good variety of … Read more >>
One more blog from last Saturday’s S&B: Neil @ Cambridge. A crossword that’s themed but not around the Cambridge event.
As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, Nimrod is something of a long-term nemesis of mine, having regularly made my life difficult back when I was blogging the Independent dailies. These days I do … Read more >>
Quite a few people in Cambridge last Saturday had done this puzzle on the way to the S and B and were remarking on how enjoyable it was. I deliberately left it at … Read more >>
How careless of the type setter – 17 clues have words from their definition in the next clue. Five clues both lose and gain a word. The initial letters of the misplaced words … Read more >>
As usual an enjoyable and sound crossword from Dac Phi (my apologies for calling Phi Dac — I have a suspicion that this isn’t the first time I’ve done this. Well they do both have three letters in their name. I must cure my Dac-obsession.). I found it a bit tricky in places, but once a clue had been solved, there seemed to be no reason for the difficulty. Many of these answers are so neat that they can be explained in a single short expression.
I got off to a quick start in the NW corner, but then slowed down somewhat, even with the help of the useful 4d. Quite an “arty” puzzle, with two writers and two … Read more >>