Azed 1963
I found this a pretty tough Azed, making little progress in my initial cocky “no Chambers for me” mode, and requiring two solving sessions rather than one. Overall time was over an hour, … Read more >>
petebiddlecombe
Independent 7249 (Saturday 9 Jan) – Bannsider
I found this puzzle very difficult, and gave up unaided solving after 35 minutes with 6 and 18 remaining – I got 6 from a Chambers hunt, but needed a wildcard search for … Read more >>
Inquisitor 156 – Team by Loda
Happy New Year! (he says as he stores up this report on Christmas Eve) This seasonal puzzle had a theme which I guessed from the title – the eight reindeer who pull Santa’s … Read more >>
Independent 7226 by Mass (Sat 12 Dec 2009)
Solving time: about 45 late night minutes Mass has usually been a very difficult setter for me – never quite sure why. I was going to say that this has a lot of … Read more >>
Azed 1956
Solving time: 35 minutes without Chambers, but with one mistake A fairly straightforward Azed this one – I managed to invent all the right words without help except for 30A. Across 1 ARCHIBALD … Read more >>
Inquisitor 151 – Drop by Schadenfreude
Solving time: very roughly 6 hours, with LOTS of cheating I foolishly left this for a few days before starting to solve for this report. It turned out to be really tough and … Read more >>
Independent 7202 by Bannsider
Solving time: about 23 minutes I found this a challenging puzzle despite getting the long answer on first look. I hope most other solvers got it without too much trouble – if not, … Read more >>
Azed 1954
I’m hoping that this puzzle from last Sunday does not have a similar deadline extension to last week’s prize puzzle. If you know that it does, please let me know with a comment, … Read more >>
Independent 7178 (Sat 17 October) – Nestor
By the time you read this I’ll be on holiday, so I won’t be able to respond to any questions myself. I finished this in 8:36 so found it fairly easy for a … Read more >>
Inquisitor 146 – Mean – what do you think? – by Lato
It was quite difficult to make progress at first, but the “extra letters in wordplay” phrase started to emerge from CIANS suggesting “politicians”, and QUISLING as a possible unclued answer. Looking up “politicians” … Read more >>
Azed 1947 – Spot the Theme
The preamble said that “The twelve unclued answers (a complete set) have something in common”, andwere given their unchecked (and mutually checked) letters. Twleve unclued answers seemed quite a lot but there was … Read more >>
Independent 7154 (Sat 19 Sept) – Tyrus
This was as tough for me as the first couple of Tyrus puzzles I tried in the Independent. I don’t have an accurate timing for it but would guess about 45 minutes until … Read more >>
Inquisitor 141 – Formula by Kea
As indicated by the need to post a placeholder, I found this puzzle tough. We were told that: seven down answers needed processing in accordance with instructions from a Letters Latent quotation providing … Read more >>
Independent 7130 (Sat 22 Aug) by Nestor
Apologies for not writing this up before disappearing for the Bank Holiday weekend. This was a challenging but not too difficult puzzle, taking me 13:50. A fine set of varied answers and plenty … Read more >>
Inquisitor 136 – Availability by Phi
This is a good example of a surprise you can sometimes get from thematic puzzles – that an idea hasn’t been used before. I even wonder if this is what the title is … Read more >>