Nutmeg makes a welcome return to the Quiptic slot with a nicely crafted puzzle that provides a good Monday morning work out for the old grey cells.
Year: 2015
Independent 8,932 by Punk
New month, new Punk to do so saddle up…
Beelzebub 1,316
Fairly steady progress this week, with just a handful to check in Chambers at the end. I made life difficult for myself by entering “theatrephone” at 10 across. Entirely my fault, but then … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 143
A tricky letters latent puzzle from Monk.
AZED 2,242
The usual educational foray into Chambers and the OED from Azed.
Independent on Sunday 1318/Kairos
Poor Kairos must be getting fed up with seeing my name at the top of the blog for his Sunday Indy crosswords. His puzzles often seem to come around when I’m on duty. … Read more >>
Everyman 3,581 (May 24)
The puzzle may be found athttp://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3581.
Guardian Prize 26,579 / Picaroon
It’s always a delight for me to see Picaroon’s name on a puzzle and, once again, I was not disappointed. With Picaroon, we can often expect a theme – and here it became … Read more >>
Independent 8925 Sat 23-May-2015 Monk
I was glad when I found it was Monk today as he is one of my favourite setters. But this feeling changed as I discovered how tricky this one was. I had read all the … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variatons 1174 Fates by Gaston
2 unclued entries to find and every clued entry with an extra letter in it’s wordplay. Then 41 squares to identify connected with the theme subtly revealed by the extra letters A new … Read more >>
Financial Times 14,943 by GOZO
A fun challenge from Gozo today, thanks to whom for serving up a real 20d ! 🙂 I got to the theme pretty quickly but then got held up by the NE quadrant, which to most others would have been quite workable. Thanks to Gaufrid for the prop up there.
Independent 8,930 by Phi
The usual excellent production from Phi. My own stupidity resulted in lack of completion — I was looking for ages at 1dn — and in particular Phi has done two things of which I approve: although there are unches all round the edges he never has less than 50% checking, something that the grid makes a bit tricky; and in 12ac he has given us some wordplay. Many setters would have been quite happy with ‘Supporters of bridges’ as a cryptic definition, but not Phi, who gives us two ways into the solution, realising that there is nothing to stop you from having a clever and witty definition in a ‘straight’ clue.
Guardian 26,584 by Shed
Not too difficult and very enjoyable. Favourites 12ac and 29ac. Thanks Shed
Guardian 26,583 – Brummie
I took a while to get started on this, but then everything quickly fell into place, with just a delay at the end to get the (rather unhelpfully clued, I thought) intersecting pair … Read more >>
Independent 8929 / Tees
We never know whose puzzle we will have to solve on a Thursday. Certain setters send a shiver down your spine, others raise a smile but we are rarely disappointed. Today it’s Tees’ … Read more >>