shuchi

When I see a Bradman puzzle I brace myself for a toughie. This started off smoothly enough on the left but the right half was slow to fall. A few new words for … Read more >>

Fairly easy, pleasant puzzle today. I was briefly held up in the NE corner, I thought COLOGNE and BETEL were cleverly clued and it didn’t help to not know the two Lancs towns … Read more >>

I enjoyed this puzzle overall, except that I thought there was an overload of ‘select nth letter’ type of wordplay. The clues are a little wordy but have entertaining surfaces, notably 8A, 27A, … Read more >>

Many clues raised a smile (14A, 22A, 27A to name a few). There are a couple of mythological references (Oleander, Atalanta), which have been clued inventively. Alberich is topnotch as ever. Across 1 … Read more >>

An entertaining puzzle from Viking. The theme (six answers form a group relating to a recent bicentenary) eluded me till the end, thanks to Gaufrid for help with this. The bicentenary is the … Read more >>

A generous helping of long anagrams and letter picking clues in this puzzle. There is also a ‘dense’ mini-theme going on (7D, 8D, 9D). Good stuff overall except that the clue surfaces felt … Read more >>

I’m always pleased when I open Friday’s crossword and find I have Mudd to blog about. This was as enjoyable as Mudd consistently is, with some innovative definitions, entertaining wordplay and great clue … Read more >>

Good puzzle, tough in places with some word meanings new to me. Found 27A, 16D particularly interesting. Across 9 INHERITOR IN (RHETORIC – C)* 10 AGUES A(-r)GUES 11 UNTRUTH (-p)UNT (bet) RUTH (girl) … Read more >>

What a fine puzzle. A balanced mix of easy and tough clues. Bumpy ride, but a most enjoyable one. Across 9 YOU’VE GOT ME THERE 🙂 10 EXERT EXPERT – P 11 BATTALION … Read more >>

Good fun puzzle from Bradman, with great surfaces to most of the clues. Not too tough by Bradman standards – though I’m still scratching my head over 1A. Across 1 WEAVER? [Update: WEAVER … Read more >>

Pleasing puzzle from Mudd as usual. Some nifty definitions (especially liked 2D, 21D) and more than one define-by-example style of clue (23A, 3D, 8D). I have two small questions about the wordplay (1A, … Read more >>

I got off to a breezing start with this puzzle, filled in 90% of the grid without pause but then unravelling the wordplay for a few of them took some thinking. Not sure … Read more >>

Some well-concealed hidden words (21A, 26A) and amusing wordplay (1A, 12A, 17D) in this one. I was very entertained with the puzzle overall. A couple of clues look a little questionable to me … Read more >>

I found this puzzle tough to start with but it got better when then the anagrams fell into place. 9A and 21A were my favourites, also enjoyed the reversals at 28A and 31A. … Read more >>