Never knowingly undersolved
Not my cup of tea, but I’m sure others will have enjoyed it. Help on a couple, please. I’m not keen on these types of puzzles: an unhelpful … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27023.
Sixteen days to go in the mud-slinging gutter-trawling (least-un)popularity contest that is the US election, and both Trump and Clinton references abound in this week’s Cyclops…hopefully he’ll have some closer-to-home Brexit machinations and … Read more >>
Good stuff from Hypnos. Over the last few months there has been discussion on whether the IoS’s reputation for gentle puzzles still holds true. Here we have gentle and tricky in the same puzzle. Thanks Hypnos.
Apologies for the delay, not sure what I did with the earlier write up.
Blogging these puzzles, having to explain every little detail, makes me appreciate AZED more and more. I even look forward to the sometimes dry as dust surfaces as a break from the never-ending quest for inventiveness one gets in modern cryptic puzzles. Plus I never get tired of looking stuff up in Chambers, which must make me look more than a little sad I know. Thank you AZED.
With Autumn in full swing an offering from Morph I felt there was a good variation in clue types in today’s crossword and many that made me chuckle. Always a good sign. Many short clues, … Read more >>
The preamble tells us that we are going to be introduced to six fictional characters who, engaged in a common endeavour, are temporarily CHANGING ROLES. What connection will there be between these roles and the cell that is to be left blank?
Special instructions this weekend, something that always gets my attention. Thanks Picaroon, most enjoyable!
An enjoyable, and relatively easier challenge than usual from WANDERER. I had to google a bit to check my parsing (on 2 clues) – learnt a couple of new things along the way.
Phi is back on his normal day This looks like just a standard crossword puzzle although there are some symmetrically placed entries that could be paired up, e.g. COP and … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27021.
This is Wiglaf’s fifth crossword in the Independent, although the first one that I have blogged. We seem to have plenty of newish names nowadays, although you wouldn’t know that they were newish because their crosswords are pretty good; as you’d expect of course, as they wouldn’t have got past Eimi if they weren’t.
I found this to be a bit hard in places, but quite sound and any failings were my own. Perhaps a bit clunky in places, such as 5dn, but this is made up for by some very nice clues.
Definitions in italics.
A treat from Arachne to brighten a miserably wet morning. I found this rather easier than usual but no less enjoyable for that. We have a variety of clue types, several of them … Read more >>
A mostly uninspiring, if competent, offering from Falcon this fine Thursday morning.