Independent 6489/Nimrod
Fairly easy puzzle from Nimrod, although getting the 3 long down clues early on definitely helped. Across 3 WAS< in WARP,ACT – “pervert”is a verb here, rather than a noun. 8 SCOREBOARD – … Read more >>
neildubya
Independent 6484 (28-07-07)/Monk – Never Straightforward
Very entertaining puzzle from Monk. Of course, it wouldn’t be Monk with a Nina of some sort and I spotted this one once I solved 17/18/19A – the unchecked letters in the top … Read more >>
Guardian 24145 Auracaria Full sail ahead!
Across 1 ROMULUS founder of Rome, and I otherwise have no idea what the clue means. (Hangs head in shame.) 5 CHAR QUI is a sort of South American dried meat jerky. Char … Read more >>
Independent 6485/Mass
Probably the easiest Mass puzzle I’ve solved (and definitely the easiest I’ve blogged). There were some really good clues in this but, again, I don’t think much of the cryptic definitions and I … Read more >>
Independent 6478 (21-07-07)/Nimrod – Ant-sy.
Something of a novelty for me, this – a Nimrod puzzle where I understood everything (almost). Original choice of theme too; it’s not National Anteater Day or something is it? Across 9 EMANATE … Read more >>
Financial Times 12521/Falcon – Good for the ego…
The easiest crossword I’ve done in quite some time leading to my first ever “clean-sweep” (I think this is a technical term meaning that you solve every clue in a puzzle in order, … Read more >>
Independent 6478/Math – (affects Monty Burns-style voice) Excellent!
An excellent and thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Math. There’s a theme too, but you don’t need to know anything about The Simpsons in order to complete the grid as all of the thematic … Read more >>
Guardian 24137 Araucaria Posted by Simply_Simon July 24th 2007
Across 1 COQUET 4ALNMOUTH This was my start point. It looked like an anagram, and that gave me 21 across. 10 AND OR RAN 11 IN DISC R IM IN ATE 12 PRE … Read more >>
Everyman 3172 (15-07-07)
Across 1 BY (“buy”) CHOICE – “on the phone” is your homophone indicator. 12 NO MAN IS AN ISLAND – I think I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen this … Read more >>
Independent 6472 (14-07-07)/Nimrod
The first thing you noticed about this puzzle was that some of the clues were prefixed and suffixed with “(see [another clue number])…” – one clue referred to another and that one to … Read more >>
Financial Times 12505/Dante
Across 1. OTT,A(W)A 9. PRO FIT 12. PLAYGOER 13. STANCE – A golf ref. 16. SCARECROWS (soccer wars)* 19. SPRING ROLL 20. FETA – fate* 23. MEADOW (a mowed)* 25. RE(LAPSE)D 27. TIDEMARK … Read more >>
Financial Times 12514/Jason
Across 5 CREW in SS – I hesitated about filling this one in because I couldn’t see how “props” could be a definition for SCREWS. I’ve just looked it up and found there … Read more >>
Independent 6474/Virgilius – Magic Numbers
According to the A-Z of Crosswords by Jonathan Crowther, Virgilius (in real-life) studied Maths at Cambridge and is an academic specializing in the “cultural and political aspects of mathematics education” so I suppose … Read more >>
Independent 6473/Merlin
Across 1 O,A,FISH,NESS – “o” is a short form of “of”. Good clue to get us going. 10 (ACTIONS IN A LAB IN)* – CANNIBALISATION has a few meanings, apart from the obvious … Read more >>
Independent 6466 (7th July 2007)/Bannsider
I thought this was a fantastic puzzle, maybe my favourite of the year so far. Not easy though – I got the first few across clues and one or two downs fairly quickly … Read more >>