Never knowingly undersolved
A plain Azed this week I found this to be a fairly standard Azed where 99% of the time you know whether you have got it right. There is one … Read more >>
When we saw that it was a Donk Prize Puzzle this week, we knew we were in for a treat – and we weren’t disappointed. There were some very straightforward clues to get … Read more >>
Prior to this puzzle, there have been a couple of weeks where the EVs had misspellings in the clues’ definitions, which I tend to find rather hard. I’m therefore heartened to see in the preamble that this one has extra letters in the wordplay. There’s some highlighting too, which can sometimes give the puzzled puzzler an extra hint.
A most entertaining crossword that I found very difficult. Usually I solve Paul’s puzzles much more quickly than I did this one. Was it just me having a bad day or did other people think this was hard too?
Tyrus has given us an interesting and quite challenging puzzle. It looks like the puzzle is celebrating the WEDDING (19 across) of ANTONIO [unchecked letters in top row] and ELEANOR [unchecked … Read more >>
(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.) A slow start, but it worked … Read more >>
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) A slow start, but it worked out okay in the end. Thanks to Paul. … Read more >>
An easy pleasant challenge from Falcon. Recommended for beginners on the FT grids. Straightforward with a dash of inventive cluing. Thanks Falcon.
As usual an expectedly difficult but good crossword from Monk. Most of the answers seemed fairly obvious after the event; it was just that they were so hard to see in the first place. Perhaps this is because of the high proportion of the definitions that are single words, making it hard to isolate them.
One can criticise the grid for a number of reasons, although it is a standard one that is often used by setters: it doesn’t allow for much of a range of answer-lengths (they are all 5, 6, 7 or 8 letters); four of the answers have less than 50% checking, something that I know doesn’t bother everyone but I don’t like it; and very quickly you end up doing a number of separate little puzzles.
Very pleasant and gentle. Thanks, Sleuth.
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26685.
Monday Prize Crossword / Sep 14, 2015
I’m afraid that I cannot remember much of what I felt when solving this Dante crossword. When writing the blog, I wasn’t particularly bewitched by many of the inevitable cryptic definitions.
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of September 12, 2015 Cincinnus gives us another fine puzzle with some beautiful clues and clever cryptic definitions. My clue of the week is 1a (JOHN BULL) … Read more >>
A perfectly innocent-looking crossword filled with mines and boobytraps to catch out the unwary (of which I was one). Thanks Alberich!
Another gem of a puzzle from Picaroon, with his characteristic ingenious cluing and witty misdirection, along with excellent surfaces throughout. Most enjoyable – many thanks to Picaroon for providing such a good start … Read more >>