Nice puzzle with one clue I cannot explain. I am away on holiday and about to start a long journey so I can’t spend any more time on this. I will try and get backto the blog this evening if I can. Thanks Monk.
Month: July 2017
Guardian 27,253 / Pasquale
When I agreed to stand in for Eileen today, little did I know that when I booted up my pc this morning I would find that a folder containing important records had disappeared … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1498: Where Are They? by Shark
Shark’s puzzles frequently involve a lot of clues that are difficult to parse, and this one was no exception. The denouement involved some Googling as the particular book referred to was not familiar … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,604 by GAFF
Tough stuff and a nice theme from Gaff this Tuesday morning.
Guardian Cryptic 27,252 by Picaroon
An enjoyable puzzle with some lovely clues and great surfaces…
Independent 9598 / Radian
Radian provides the challenge today. Today is the 200th anniversary of the death of Jane Austen. I suspect the Independent may not be the only paper to publish a crossword … Read more >>
Independent 9,597 by Hoskins
The lad Harry Hoskins once again appears on a Monday, with an easy-ish puzzle. Last time out Hoskins set up regular blogger Pierre with a load of ghost theme bird answers, what’s he got for me?
Guardian 27,251 – Rufus
“Only” five cryptic definitions from Rufus today (a couple of them barely qualifying as cryptic), but a lot of anagrams, which made this a very quick solve for me. Thanks to Rufus. … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic 922/Nutmeg
A fine puzzle to start the cruciverbal week from our favourite spice girl. Meaningful surfaces, clear cluing, good variety of clue types and subject matter, all packaged in a Quiptic framework. Brava, Nutmeg. … Read more >>
Everyman 3,691
A little more tricky than your average Everyman if my solving time is anything to go by but I’ve no complaints about that. . . Across 1 Much less room sadly for supplementary … Read more >>
AZED 2,352
In a few cases (14ac, 19dn, 25dn, 27dn) Azed has produced clues of the highest quality, clues that would I’m sure be quoted in his own clue-setting competitions, but many of the rest, as is always the case with Azed, are, although perfectly sound and quite pleasant, very simple in their construction and the answers are only difficult to find because they require knowledge of words that are way beyond the ken of the solver on the Clapham omnibus. Which is as it should be. He is not intended to be solved on the C. o.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent on Sunday 1429/Raich
Raich can do hard, but his IoS puzzles are generally accessible, and I at least found this one so. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition (xxxx)* anagram … Read more >>
Independent 9596 / Monk
Not an easy end to the week……
Enigmatic Variations 1285 Outrageous Simile by Stick Kcit
A wonderfully complex preamble this week. Read once, twice maybe three times? And then start on the clues and hope it all falls into place. The preamble in summary: There are 9 … Read more >>
Guardian 27,244 / Paul
For some reason it took a while to for us to get momentum in solving this, although looking back I can’t quite see why: everything’s completely fair, and nothing really obscure. As with … Read more >>