Independent 9100/Punk

Please tell me that this was hard.  It took me three goes to finally pin this down, but looking back you think ‘why was that so difficult?’  I have chuntered on a bit, … Read more >>

Azed 2270

Making do without Paul’s awesome crossword utility is hard… but I somehow managed.  Kind of a medium level difficulty Azed — usual Chambers trawling.  There’s one wordplay that I’m unsure of — and a few … Read more >>

Independent 9098 by Phi

To finish this crossword I used aids. Usually when I do so I regret it afterwards, feeling that the answer really should have been clear, but in this case there was no self-reproach since the words were so unusual that despite some help from the wordplay they would probably still be empty spaces. None of the answers at 4ac, 12ac, 4dn, 6dn or 7dn are in Chambers Crossword Dictionary (2006) and only 4dn and 7dn are in Bradford’s (2006). So far as I can see, anyway.

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Financial Times 15111 by CINCINNUS

A rarely seen setter on a Friday, Cincinnus gives us a straightforward challenge with just a touch of some unusual words to keep things interesting. Clean, unambiguous cluing meant that the parsing was a breeze. 14ac and 30ac were new words for me, both of which were “getable” from the clue.

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Guardian 26,751 / Paul

A lovely puzzle from Paul, ingenious and witty, with a most congenial, for me,  mini-theme. It caused a fair bit of head-scratching: several answers were inspired guesses, leading to relieved ‘ahas’ when the parsing … Read more >>