Free book in Sunday Independent (UK)
As nmsindy says in his Quixote report, this Sunday’s edition (8th June) will include a shortened version of Don Manley’s “Chambers Crossword Manual”. For UK solvers who don’t yet have a “how to … Read more >>
petebiddlecombe
Inquisitor 71 – At Random by Charybdis
Solving time: about 2 hours This was a nice example of a fairly gentle thematic puzzle. Extra words in clues are a fairly simple way of providing thematic messages, but the idea of … Read more >>
Azed blogging vacancy
If you would like to write an Azed report about once a month, there’s a space going – one of our current bloggers wants to drop out. If you’d like to have a … Read more >>
Azed 1873
Solving time: not recorded I can’t remember how long this took or how much I used Chambers. But I made a wrong guess at the first letter of 17D, which suggests that the … Read more >>
Inquisitor 67 – Dissent by Hypnos
Solving time: ages! This was a classic example of the kind of themed puzzle for which solver A can spot the theme instantly and have the whole thing done in an hour or … Read more >>
Azed 1870
Solving time 27 mins without books, then about 20 mins with Chambers to clear up the resulting mess. Doing Azed without books is an interesting challenge but sometimes you invent a word that … Read more >>
Last call for S & B 4
Just a quick reminder that some of us are gathering for another pub & grub session next Friday. Full details in this previous posting.
Inquisitor 63: 20 Across by Schadenfreude
Solving time: about an hour I solved a fair number of clues cold and then wondered what was going on, but then saw that all the answers with different lengths to the grid … Read more >>
Azed 1868 – Carte Blanche
Solving time: about 2 hours – with one answer wrong, it turns out I forgot I was down to blog this, so solved it today. I can’t remember whether we’ve had a 13×11 … Read more >>
Sloggers and Betters 4 – a pub and meal evening on 4/4
As some readers will know, we’ve had a few evening meetings at London pubs for contributors to and readers of this blog, Times for the Times and Tony Sever’s RTC3. Both times, we’ve … Read more >>
Inquisitor 59 – Commemoration by Hypnos
Solving time: no recorded – let’s call it 90 minutes With lots of articles in the papers, it didn’t take much effort to guess a possible theme here – the spare letters message … Read more >>
AZED 1863
Solving time: not recorded, but I did finish this without looking anything up. 8/11 were the last two to go in. A couple of quibbles at 12 and 35, and some of the … Read more >>
Independent and FT Crosswords for new solvers
This post is a short guide to Independent and FT cryptic crosswords for those trying them out in their new free online forms. It’s particularly directed at any US-based solvers who haven’t seen … Read more >>
Azed 1858 – Competition Puzzle
In theory I should delay this another hour but I’m sure anyone intending to write a clue to HUMONGOUS will have done so by now. Solving time: 22:20 – no books – and … Read more >>
Inquisitor 51 – For the record … by Eddie
Solving time: a couple of hours, maybe a bit less. Experienced Inquisitor solvers will know already that Eddie (from Eddie the Eagle, referring to the Indie masthead as well as the ski-jumper) is … Read more >>