Never knowingly undersolved
As is ever the case with Vlad, a tricky one today, not helped by the unfriendly grid, and more so by my initially entering two plausible but incorrect answers. Slightly bruised thanks to … Read more >>
A fun challenge from BUCCANEER to end the work week.
Three asterisked clues need encoding by a Playfair square before entry and three unclued need to be entered likewise. Needless to say the Playfair needs to be derived. Some very straight forward clues … Read more >>
Lap up this puzzle from Guy!
Wire fills the Thursday spot this week
The scheduled blogger, scchua is on holiday, so I’m standing in today for this offering from Imogen. I got off to a slow start and didn’t get anything until the … Read more >>
Eccles is occupying his customary mid-week spot this Wednesday. I actually found this to be a rather challenging puzzle by Indy standards, and a harder than average puzzle from Eccles. I needed quite … Read more >>
Thanks to Chalmie for this morning’s challenge.
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29072.
It was a traditionally wet Bank Holiday Saturday, and there was nothing on the television. Luckily we had a nifty little Inquisitor to occupy the time. Apparently it was the start of Ladies’ … Read more >>
A pretty straightforward and enjoyable puzzle from Brummie this morning. The main issue with this setter is that he often, but not always, has a theme – at least with Qaos we know … Read more >>
This seems to be Grecian’s ninth Independent puzzle since a debut in March 2022. It is the first puzzle by Grecian that I have blogged. I suspect many solvers will … Read more >>
An interesting variety of clues today from Peto.
Azed produces these every year or two and they are very clever and great fun, but when I saw that it was a P.D. my heart sank, as they take me a long time to do and I wasn’t sure that I’d finish in time. However, having done several of these over the years I’m probably finding them easier. Why it should be that they appeal to the majority of solvers goodness knows, but they do, and the names of the prizewinners in Azed’s lists are much the same names as in his regular crosswords. They divide opinion a bit, and a few don’t like them at all. Personally I enjoy them despite their difficulty: the moment of realisation when what was a slightly clunky and incomprehensible sentence reveals itself is very nice.
The instructions I find pretty incomprehensible and it’s only by learning from various other sources that I know what to do. Why Azed bothers to say ‘Preference is given to…’ I can’t understand, since all the clues that I’ve ever seen quoted have been ‘correct’. Should he not make it a rule?
MUDD begins the week…