If you knew your way around France and its history, you would have found this FT challenge from Gozo easy. Unfortunately, I didnt. 26ac needs work as well.
Month: July 2017
Guardian 27,249 – Maskarade
It was a surprise to see Maskarade’s name today, as he has previously only mostly appeared as a setter of bank holiday specials… … but the reason soon became clear, as the letters … Read more >>
Independent 9595 / Phi
It’s Phi-day again! We have to say that, as a solve, we found this rather ‘vanilla’ – not unenjoyable, but not really very challenging. Phi’s choice of entries for the four-letter words … Read more >>
Independent 9,594 / Dutch
This is my first outing as a blogger with Dutch, and a most enjoyable experience it was too! I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, with a good few write-ins (mainly anagrams) … Read more >>
Guardian 27,248 / Paul
Well, this was certainly a puzzle to get your teeth into! Some easy entry clues but then others that required quite a bit of unpicking. My last parse (4dn) didn’t come until I … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,600 by CHALMIE
A tribute to an American poet from Chalmie.
Financial Times 15,591 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword / Jul 3, 2017
Dante in a very friendly mood, in my opinion.
Not that many cryptic definitions this time.
Financial Times 15,590 by Gaff
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 1, 2017
Financial Times 15,599 / Julius
I don’t know what’s happened to PeeDee today, but something has prevented him from being with us, so here is a quick analysis of the clues. With 1ac and 1dn being my first … Read more >>
Independent 9593 / Tees
Tees fills the Wednesday slot this week. Tees has forsaken his usual classical and mythological path today and homed in on a more modern theme that fits with my childhood. The … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 27,247 by Philistine
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27247.
Inquisitor 1497: Solidarity by Chalicea
Chalicea starts off by giving us a pleasantly short preamble. Let’s see whether that lulls us into a false sense of security. This preamble stated "The unclued lights give a … Read more >>
Independent 9,592 by Vigo
Vigo has always been marginally difficult: not horribly so, but significantly. This crossword I found almost as easy as anything the Independent ever produces, and amazingly so for a Tuesday, which is usually one of the harder days. Not that that is a bad thing: it’s a positive on blogging day, and in any case the crossword itself was a good one: simple clues, but all sound and enjoyable. My only carp is with the use (twice, I think) of ‘with’ as a link-word, something that I find almost impossible to justify on logical grounds, although I have seen people who know rather more about these things than I do making a case for it.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Guardian 27,246 / Shed
A rare and welcome appearance from Shed, who has always been one of my favourites. I think it’s generally agreed here that Shed’s puzzles are much gentler than they used to be but, … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,598 by ARMONIE
Good puzzle. A notch up from Tuesday’s normal degree-of-difficulty and welcome for that.