ilancaron

I think this is the first time we’ve encountered Audreus – at least lately. Or at least first time I have on a Monday which is typically Rufus’s slot. I found myself filling … Read more >>

The things you learn: my basic knowledge of cricket and opera has increased significantly since I started doing cryptics regularly. A nice selection of Rufusian puns and cryptic definitions. You’d think there’d be … Read more >>

Nelson (19D) was the admiral (22A) who led the Royal Navy in the Battle of Copenhagen (18A). Maybe I’ve teased out a theme here after all. Or is the theme golf (see 1A, … Read more >>

Virtually every clue is holiday related (xmas, parties, trees, pantos, carols…). I probably missed an allusion or two being of the other faith. I think this is the first of the Xmas-related themes … Read more >>

One of these days I’m going to miss a theme in an Everyman. I’ve stared at this one but no joy. Though I always enjoy solving Everyman – which typically takes about 1/2h … Read more >>

Quite a bit of complex wordplay in this puzzle. A couple of obscure allusions but nonetheless accessible. Across 1 COM(PUT)E – A tour de force pushing the cryptic envelope: here’s the clue: “Number … Read more >>

Standard fair Rufus. A couple of containment issues below. Curious what people think about their soundness. Across 10 (victo)R+OUGH – Last letter of Victor followed by (Hugo)*. “Poorly” is the definition 11 NEED(L)ED … Read more >>

Solved this when it was published last week, wrote up my notes and then promptly misplaced them which I just discovered. Turns out that solving a puzzle the 2nd time round, when you … Read more >>

Solving time: 20’ I stared at this puzzle for a few minutes, scanning clues, until one of the long ones clicked: ALL OVER THE PLACE. From that point on things went rather more … Read more >>

I wasn’t paying attention and that’s what I filled in at 11A instead of ATTENTIVE which made the NE corner a spot of bother. Nice puzzle with good balance of clue types. If … Read more >>

[This is actually courtesy of loonapick who due to technical difficulties asked me to post… so please direct all compliments to him and complaints to me about the formatting] Gordius is a regular … Read more >>

No good deed goes unpunished. I volunteered to do Tuesday’s cryptic thinking that I’ll probably get someone tractable like Shed, Quantum, etc. – but no… and we’re left with four wordplays I can’t … Read more >>

Typical fair Rufus fare. A couple of nice turns of phrase (e.g. 24D), one Shakespearean reference that had me checking Hamlet (22D) and a wordplay whose decoding had me going for a bit … Read more >>