Andrew – Page 62 – Fifteensquared

Guardian 25,273 – Arachne

March 18, 2011 at 9:34 am by Andrew

I found it quite hard to get going on this one, but I think that’s because of some very clever clues where the cryptic reading is well concealed, with 19ac and 7dn being … Read more >>

Another reasonably straightforward Azed, as far as I remember, helped by an easy 1 across to get me started, though as usual a fair bit of Chambers-trawling was needed to confirm all the … Read more >>

Guardian Genius 92 – Brummie

March 7, 2011 at 12:45 pm by Andrew

(Sorry for the late posting – last minute delays writing this up due to work commitments etc) Maybe it’s just me, but I think the Genius puzzles are getting generally harder. Number 91 … Read more >>

Guardian 25,263 – Rufus

March 7, 2011 at 8:05 am by Andrew

Gentle and easy does it with Rufus today, with the usual smooth surface readings. On the other hand there are a couple of clues that I raise an eyebrow at because the cryptic … Read more >>

Guardian 25,259 – Chifonie

March 2, 2011 at 8:35 amMarch 2, 2011 at 12:40 am by Andrew

Typical Chifonie fare here: pleasant enough, and soundly clued, but not much of a challenge, with lots of very obvious clues that wouldn’t be out of place in the Quiptic, and a preponderance … Read more >>

Guardian 25,254 – Pasquale

February 24, 2011 at 1:19 am by Andrew

I’m always glad to see Pasquale making an appearance, though ever since his Janet Street-Porter puzzle a while back I’m also a bit nervous if he turns up on one of my blogging … Read more >>

Guardian 25,249 – Orlando

February 18, 2011 at 8:52 am by Andrew

A momentous and (mostly) excellent week ends with this enjoyable and reasonably straightforward puzzle from Orlando. It’s all of a pretty high standard, so I won’t pick out any particular clues, though I … Read more >>

Guardian 25,239 – Rufus

February 7, 2011 at 8:53 amFebruary 7, 2011 at 8:22 am by Andrew

A very easy Rufus today, where my main difficulty came with some less-than-brilliant cryptic definitions that seemed too obvious to be true. I’m a little short of time so please excuse the rather … Read more >>

Guardian 25,235 – Chifonie

February 2, 2011 at 12:40 am by Andrew

A fairly typical Chifonie, with a lot of quite obvious clues. There’s a preponderance of charade clues, with 13 out of 28 being of that type, including 10 out of 14 acrosses: rather … Read more >>

Azed 2017

January 30, 2011 at 9:28 amJanuary 30, 2011 at 12:01 am by Andrew

I found this one of the hardest Azed plain puzzles for a long time, with, I think, a higher-than-average proportion of obscure words. I ended up with some rather tedious dictionary-searching to get … Read more >>

Guardian 25,230 – Crucible

January 27, 2011 at 1:08 am by Andrew

I seem to have got into a habit lately of sailing through one half of a puzzle and struggling with the rest. With this one I finished the bottom half quite quickly but … Read more >>

Guardian 25,225 – Chifonie

January 21, 2011 at 8:36 am by Andrew

I filled in the bottom half of this very quickly, the NE corner slightly less so; the NW corner took me longest (apart from the very easy 1ac), though for no good reason … Read more >>

Guardian 25,215 – Rufus

January 10, 2011 at 12:30 am by Andrew

Another very easy Rufus, though I had to check a couple of defintions (12ac and 6dn). I thought some of the double definitions were a bit weak, but there were some nice anagram … Read more >>

Guardian 25,211 – Gordius

January 5, 2011 at 12:57 am by Andrew

Another year, another Gordius.. In the spirit of the season I can say that I mostly enjoyed this, but as usual I have a few niggles, and there a couple of places where … Read more >>

Guardian 25,206 – Pasquale

December 30, 2010 at 10:48 amDecember 30, 2010 at 12:01 am by Andrew

A welcome return for Pasquale after nearly two months’ absence. The Christmas gremlins are still crawling around the Guardian site, meaning this puzzle was available 24 hours early, so I had plenty of … Read more >>