Bertandjoyce

There was a tradition in both our families of solving Telegraph concise and cryptic crosswords. During our student days we moved on to the Observer. When we could afford a daily, we enjoyed the Guardian cryptics until the Indy arrived on the scene. Nowadays, Saturdays are not complete without the Inquisitor in the i paper. We never time ourselves but we do feel cheated if we finish quickly and really enjoy seeking out themes and ninas etc. We are now retired and when time allows, we supplement the daily Indy solve with the on-line Guardian cryptic, Genius and the occasional Quiptic. Finding fifteensquared was a revelation – we realised we are not alone in our attempts to stave off Alzheimer’s!

Best Sellers by Fez

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It’s Joyce again. As time was against us, I did not solve the puzzle before blogging so I cannot comment on how difficult or easy the puzzle was. There were a couple of words that I didn’t know – one of which I would have struggled to solve from the clue.

 

Click HERE for a pdf of the puzzle.

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Write the real title here by Komornik

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After scheduling this blog, I decided that I had to come back and add something –  it is our 800th blog on 225!

It’s Joyce blogging again. I have to admit that I did not attempt to solve the puzzle before blogging. Last year Komornik set a puzzle which took us ages to unravel and we had to cheat at the end. We found many of the clues were challenging to say the least. As Bert and I have ended up blogging five puzzles between us, I decided to look at the parsings for each clue as I progressed through the blog and work out whether I would have had any chance of solving them.

So…. here’s the false title that Komornik submitted with the puzzle plus the preamble:

Puzzle that conveys vital information, contrarily expressed as a number of letters (for want of a proper title) by Komorník

All seven-letter entries (one thematically always found abbreviated) and 40% of five-letter entries exemplify what has often entertained us (three words, ignoring an article). All other clues contain a surplus word, whose initial letters define the theme. Solutions include a trade name and several very well-known proper names. You may, if you wish, write the real title here:

and the puzzle…

S & B 2024 Komorník

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Independent 11,861 by Tack

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This is Tack’s third puzzle in the Indy. His two other crosswords were themed – the last one had an amazing grid fill of numerous bands although Duncan managed to find a couple which Tack had never heard of. We’d enjoyed his two other puzzles so were looking forward to solving this one.

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