Never knowingly undersolved
I liked this grid with words all the way round the border, it is a long while since I saw one of these. Good to have the minimum of black space on the grid, value for money!
There are a couple of clues where I don’t quite get the wording, even though I’m sure I have the correct answer. Thanks to Hypnos for an enjoyable Sunday solve.
Nestor has sometimes been described as one of the easier of the Saturday Independent setters. I guess these things are relative, as I found this one quite a challenge. Still, I got there … Read more >>
An alphabetical jigsaw – with rhyming couplets, no less! – to celebrate what would have been Araucaria’s 94th birthday on Monday of this week.
A nice short preamble…only 24 clues…this should be a doddle! But hang on, what is going on with the grid? No bars, no grid numbers, except 1-12 along the ‘axes’. No clue enumerations … Read more >>
Some good Puckish fun today – nicely positioned in difficulty, but with a twist… … as well as some cross-referencing between clues, there’s a theme of clues that are, or use, some of … Read more >>
As expected, today saw my monthly tussle with Phi. I found this one quite tough, not least, I feel, because of the high frequency of 4-letter entries. I solved clues steadily but didn’t … Read more >>
An excellent challenge from MUDD today! Several fantastic clues peppered all over the grid and a real treat for someone wanting to bite into tantalizing cryptic crosswords.
A good puzzle for tyros but not enough grey cell exercise for this solver as it required only one pass through the clues in order to complete the grid. . Across 1 Deficit … Read more >>
Scchua is away celebrating the Chinese new year so you’ve got me you lucky chaps & chapesses
A good work out from Crosophile today. This puzzle was one for the horticulturalists with its homage to GARDENERS QUESTION TIME (29 across, 17 across and 25 down). The programme … Read more >>
I was half expecting to see Dante today with his customary double/cryptic definitions and anagrams but instead we have Crux with much of the same. A gentle start to the week with plenty … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 7, 2015 I found this a fairly easy puzzle with no obscure words or unknown references. My clue of the week is, unusually, a hidden-word … Read more >>
What new is there to say about Dac? Every clue tells a little story. I have misgivings about ‘provided’ as an anagram indicator in 4dn, and I suspect that there might be a typo in 12dn, since my suggestion is so simple that I can’t see why Dac didn’t do it that way (although now that I look more closely he may be right all along, the two words necessitating a verb without s; not sure about this — perhaps someone who knows about these things could drop in and tell us); but a small price to pay for a day of Dac.
Definitions underlined.
An enjoyable puzzle that I thought had an ‘old fashioned’ feel to it (not a criticism, just an observation). Thanks Hamilton.
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26498.