Never knowingly undersolved
rightback Solving time: 6:37 Welcome relief after a half-hour struggle with Scorpion yesterday: I much preferred this to the last Phi puzzle I blogged (6288). The antipodean flavour to the top left (OTAGO and … Read more >>
Solving time: About 45 mins without Chambers plus about 10 minutes with to check/finish off. One mistake (22ac), two I can’t explain (31ac and 2dn) – offers welcome. A quick scan suggests that … Read more >>
Solving time: 6:44 Apologies for the today’s brevity. There’s one clue I don’t understand (8d). Across 9 BEER AND SKITTLES; [moder]N in (LIKE BEST TRADES)* 10 LAUNDERER (cryptic definition) 14 TIC-TAC (cryptic definition) … Read more >>
Solving time: 9:52 I don’t think this was one of Phi’s more inspired offerings; unless there is a theme I have missed, I suspect the construction started with the interlinking 11ac, 7dn and … Read more >>
It’s 4am and yesterday’s Guardian hasn’t been blogged yet, so as I have ‘flu and can’t sleep I thought I’d fill the breach. Please excuse any mistakes. Easier than usual for Paul, I … Read more >>
Solving time: 5:12 The quickest of the week so far for me. A couple of excellent cryptic definitions (12dn/13dn). No theme that I can see, but then I usually can’t. Beginners’ tips of … Read more >>
Solving time: 11:36. Monk is one of my favourite Indie setters and today was another gem with clues as inventive and accurate as ever. Some difficult words – five I didn’t know (12, … Read more >>
Solving time: 12:37, held up by two pairs at the end; one mistake (1dn), or perhaps two (19dn). I think this is Mordred’s second puzzle in the Independent. Like his first, this contained … Read more >>
Solving time: 14:20, of which 5 mins on 8ac and 1dn. Nimrod continues his recent theme of epic constructions today: just 22 clues in this puzzle, which includes six crossing 15-letter words and … Read more >>
Solving time: 13:59, with one careless mistake (22dn) plus another I’m not sure of (1d). Some very clever clues today with largely convincing surfaces, and just a couple of Guardianisms (25ac, 7d), by … Read more >>
Solving time: 20 mins (1 missing) I found the bottom left half harder than the top right, but had almost finished after 10 mins. I then spent another 10 trying unsuccessfully to make … Read more >>
Solving time: 13:16 (one mistake) Another excellent puzzle from Virgilius with a theme (7, arguably 10 answers) based on a work by one of my favourite authors. Anyone unfamiliar with the excerpt in … Read more >>
Solving time: 7:45 I really liked this puzzle on the theme of 11s (coincidentally the first clue I solved), though I wonder if I have missed some of the thematic references. A very … Read more >>
Solving time: 11:05 Not the easiest, but I think I made a bit of a meal of some of this, although there were a few difficult words. Nimrod continues a recent theme of … Read more >>
Solving time: 6:04 An impressive 11 answers on a 24dn theme, though only 13ac, 14dn and possibly 16ac are likely to have caused any difficulty for anyone with only a passing knowledge. I … Read more >>