Enigmatic Variations No 1175 – Here’s Looking at You, Kcit

Here’s the preamble in full:

Clues are presented in the correct order.  The completed grid, which does not have one letter per square, displays mirror symmetry, and resembles the item given by the unclued entry (verifiable, though not the precise form used, in the Oxford Dictionary of English). Clue numbers and bars must not be entered. Those letters which are not one per square, when combined with those in the four shaded cells, can be rearranged to give a thematic word which must be written under the grid.  Chambers Dictionary (2014) is recommended, but does not contain one reasonably common foreign word; one entry is an abbreviation.

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Financial Times 14,949 / Io

Turbolegs struggled with this one (as did I) and, due to family commitments, did not have time to finish the puzzle and then write a blog, so you have me instead. I was … Read more >>

Independent 8,935 by Tyrus

Quite amazingly difficult, for me at any rate, who took ages. Tyrus sails fairly close to the wind but is so far as I can see ultimately fair. I didn’t really enjoy this because it was such a slog, but perhaps if I hadn’t had the pressure of blogging, it would have been easier. It will be interesting to see how people got on.

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Financial Times 14,939 – Dante

Monday Prize Crossword/May 26, 2015

Dante – so, an easy start of the week?
Usually I would say ‘yes’ but I have to admit that this one was some kind of a minor struggle for me.

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