Month: June 2019

Guardian Prize 27,854 by Paul

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Great puzzle.  I really enjoy getting Paul to solve and blog.  His puzzles are always entertaining and have the extra dimension that I’m never quite sure what to expect.  The clues might be serious or flippant, hard or easy, traditional or outrageously libertarian.  Thanks for them all.

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Guardian 27,858 / Paul

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Paul makes his customary weekly appearance on Thursday, since he filled the Prize slot last Saturday. It’s a fairly typical mixed bag, with some straightforward clues to help get us started, together with … Read more >>

Independent 10,204 by Dalibor

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Dalibor is a fairly recent setter for the Indy and he is clearly worth his place there: this crossword, like its predecessors, contains some very good clues with nice misleading surfaces.  And, apart from the next comment and a few very minor quibbles, they are all so far as I can see sound and good.

There are four clues which grate on me because they have <50% checking.  I don’t know why this is such a bugbear — I always comment on it — since when you’re solving a clue early on you may have only one of the many letters there to help you, so why 2 out of 5 is such a problem I’m not sure: presumably it’s because Ximenes gave it as a “rule” in his famous book. At any rate no Times crossword (for many people the gold standard, whatever their views on Murdoch) ever has <50% checking.

Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.

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