Never knowingly undersolved
It’s Philistine, with a rather chewier offering than usual for a Monday but really rewarding to work out. Philistine is up to all his tricks, with a medley of anagrams and an abundance … Read more >>
Madcap made a debut in November with a heavily themed puzzle. I couldn’t find anything here, but that didn’t in the least detract from a well-constructed and pleasing crossword. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition … Read more >>
Puzzle from the Weekend FT of December 21, 2024
A Quiptic from Picaroon which I enjoyed solving and blogging. A couple of clues that took a bit of pencil-chewing; but it’s all clearly signposted if you read the instructions carefully. Abbreviations cd … Read more >>
The monthly puzzle inspired by recent events. Find it to solve online or download and print at ft.com/crossword, or use the FT smartphone app.
Filbert is one of the Independent‘s most frequent setters these days, and I am never disappointed when he turns up on my watch. A pleasing puzzle which took a bit of teasing out, … Read more >>
A pleasant but not a terribly demanding Azed before the trials of next week’s Christmas competition. There are unusually several mistakes, which makes one feel that he’d have benefited from an editor, who could have noticed them. But who’d be Azed’s editor? What he says goes, and it’s amazing that for well over 50 years every week we’ve had a nice crossword with very few mistakes. I shall be surprised if next week we find any, even though it will no doubt be highly complicated.
Definitions in crimson, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
Everyman to be solved so time to persuade the dog to take me to the pub
This special puzzle was included in the Guardian’s magazine today.
The preamble to the puzzle reads:
A number of appropriately positioned entries suggest locations in a game. Three unclued entries provide a conclusion.
This took me a long time to solve.
I expect it took a while to set.
No doubt Methuselah had a couple of centuries to spare to put the finishing touches to it.
This is the thirty-eighth Guardian Quick Cryptic, a series of 11 x 11 crosswords designed to support beginners learning cryptic crosswords. The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here – those rules include not posting solving times. This puzzle can be found here.
Picaroon provides the Guardian Prize challenge this week. There was a good mix of general knowledge built into the clues which dipped into literature, film, opera, philosophy, geography and cookery … Read more >>
A fun challenge from ZAMORCA this Friday.
Hurrah! After almost four months, I get a Picaroon puzzle to blog. I’m interested to hear how this one went down, after the mixed reaction to yesterday’s puzzle from Paul, where we were … Read more >>