Enigmatic Variations No. 1276: XXXX by Ifor
Here we had Ifor opening his soul to us, but obviously in code. The preamble read: An exhausted and destitute Ifor says “I’m XXXXX and on my XXXXX, so I’m going to stop … Read more >>
Never knowingly undersolved
Here we had Ifor opening his soul to us, but obviously in code. The preamble read: An exhausted and destitute Ifor says “I’m XXXXX and on my XXXXX, so I’m going to stop … Read more >>
Oh dear… a musical theme this week: not my forte. I just hoped it wouldn’t be too technical, although the preamble indicated otherwise: The FUGUE’s four-note motif appears four times, entering lower each … Read more >>
A fairly straightforward preamble from Poat this week, indicating some misprints and some colouring in to do in the endgame: In TALKING POINTS, the vertices of a figure appear in one-third of grid … Read more >>
Jago has primarily been a Listener setter, with puzzles going back to 1975. He has also had one Inquisitor two years ago and one EV about twelve years back. No clueing gimmicks from … Read more >>
This week’s preamble was fairly straightforward, with an extra word to be identified in every clue: Solvers must highlight, appropriately in two cases, five works by famous 17ac (58 cells in total). Each … Read more >>
Normally, I try to paraphrase the essential elements of the preamble. This week, it seemed far easier to reprint it word for word! Solvers must identify and highlight the five-letter keyword from a … Read more >>
Kcit’s puzzles range from the relatively straightforward to the definitely difficult, and you don’t know which it will be until about 30 minutes into the solve. His recent Listener, A Bit Up in … Read more >>
MynoT is a fairly tricky setter, but his puzzles are always worth the challenge. Here, like many of his recent EVs we had an alphabetical jigsaw, with sixteen answers requiring thematic modification before … Read more >>
I took this puzzle on a golfing holiday to Portugal with the intention of tackling it in quiet moments by the pool. For one reason or another, I never got near the pool, … Read more >>
This was Kruger’s third EV of the year (and if you want more of this fine setter, he had his third Inquisitor of the year last Saturday). Here we had some extra wordplay … Read more >>
Oxymoron puzzles vary in difficulty from ‘not too tricky’ to ‘fiendish’, and I wondered what degree of difficulty the gods had given me this week. But before I go any further, apologies for … Read more >>
This week I have to grapple with Shark. He can be one tough setter, predominantly creating D-grade puzzles for Magpie. (FYI D-grades are very tough, but just short of E-grades which are impossible!) … Read more >>
A smaller than average grid for me this week — just 11×11 and 22 cells to be highlighted. Each across clue contained an extra thematic word, the first letters of which give an … Read more >>
Gaston’s last puzzle (no. 1191, Briefing Received) had the I before E rule/exception as its theme. I remember enjoying that puzzle, especially the highlighting which gave a large I and E in the … Read more >>
Firstly, apologies to bloggees and, especially, Harribobs for the late posting of this blog. I thought it was my turn this coming weekend. Wrong! (And I haven’t even solved it yet!) This was … Read more >>