The 15×15 Spectator blogging schedule pits me against (shurely ‘with’, Ed) Fieldfare again…what kind of JAMMY are we after here – jammy as in lucky? jammy as in filled like a doughnut?…
mc_rapper67
Enigmatic Variations No. 1731: Columns by Chalicea
Chalicea has some ‘inspirational’ COLUMNS for us this week, although my first instinct on hearing the word ‘column’ is to think of data in tables or Excel files…less inspirational than than Doric or Ionic columns, or even well-written newspaper features…
Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 29,912 by Brockwell (24 January 2026)
Trawling back through my (and others’) previous Brockwell blogs, they often seem to contain a theme…
Spectator Christmas Special 2025 by Doc
The 2025 Spectator Christmas Special – a mammoth effort by Doc, with (approx) 81 clues and no less than 51(?) thematic unclued entries in seven categories! Fortunately, the Christmas edition of the magazine was a triple-weeker, so I had almost 5 weeks to solve and blog. I think I have solved/deduced them all, some on the last day before submission, but readers/commenters may have come up with alternative possibilities – time will tell when the official solution is published on Thursday…
Enigmatic Variations No. 1727: Complete by Stick Insect
This puzzle almost COMPLETEly defeated me – until a PDM at the 11th hour of the 10th day after publication, just before the submission deadline…
Cyclops 820 – 2025 Xmas Special
And so this is Christmas, and what have you solved?…another year over, a new Cyclops Xmas jumbo special just begun…
Guardian Saturday Prize Crossword 29,888 by Brummie ( 27 December 2025)
I was slightly nervous that I might be getting the Grauniad Christmas Special by Maskarade as the Prize puzzle to blog, but it seems the new normal is to have a ‘regular’ Prize puzzle and the Maskarade as a ‘bonus’ on the side…
Enigmatic Variations No. 1723: Order, Order by Kcit
Kcit is calling for ORDER, ORDER in the EV House…we EV solvers can be an unruly lot sometimes…
Cyclops 818 – Old-guard Taxability
Cyclops has a swipe at all corners of the political spectrum this fortnight, and also finds time for a little self-reflection…
Spectator 2725 – Tandemonium? by CheeseCracker
This is my first Spectator puzzle blog, although I have been solving (and submitting) them for several years now…and have been lucky enough to win a few prizes along the way…