Month: September 2022

Enigmatic Variations No. 1556: Limitations by Jaques

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Hi, intrepid EV-ers, and congratulations on securing access to the puzzle despite the LIMITATIONS those in charge at the paper have introduced.  (Not the EV or puzzles editors, I hasten to add – their skills and commitment to the series have steered it through this far.)  Before getting to the puzzle, I must give a big thank you to my fellow blogger mc_rapper for supplying me with a copy, complete with perfectly OCR-ed clues.

The two previous Jaques puzzles I’ve had the pleasure of blogging should have put me in a good frame of mind for this one but, perhaps because blogging the EV gets a smidge less fun with every attempt to kill it, I didn’t get around to starting this until Tuesday evening.  I was lucky that it wasn’t a monster!  Instead, it was all most enjoyable with a satisfying ending.

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Guardian 28,868 / Pangakupu

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I haven’t blogged a Pangakupu puzzle before – in fact, this is only his / her third appearance in the cryptic slot. There’s nothing controversial here, I think – as manehi said last … Read more >>

Financial Times 17204 Steerpike

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Thank you to Steerpike. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 8. Appetite returns in middle of jiu-jitsu lesson (4) LUST : Hidden in(in middle) reversal of(returns) “of jiu-jitsu lesson“. 9. Turns out … Read more >>

Guardian 28,866 – Soup

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This is Soup’s first (solo) appearance in the Cryptic slot, though we have seen him a few times in the Genius. This was quite tricky, with some rather unusual constructions, including a couple … Read more >>