smiffy

An extremely accessible today, to the extent that it could well be the fastest I’ve ever solved a broadsheet puzzle in my life. Anagram fiends should be pleased, as the letter-scrambling comes thick and fast throughout, … Read more >>

Some good-humoured stuff from Cinephile. A little lighter on thematic content than I’ve come to expect from him, although he did exploit the idiosyncrasies of this FT-specific grid (effectively four separate quadrants) to fill … Read more >>

Please excuse the late posting; I was not near a PC earlier in the day. This proved to be just the right flavour of puzzle for my footloose Friday, not overly challenging or … Read more >>

An unusual balance of clue types here, I thought.  Not often that you see double definitions and homophones (x6 and x2 respectively, by my tally) account for over a quarter of the clues … Read more >>

A broad palette of cryptic devices at play in this puzzle, with some (e.g 14,24,25) depending as much on lateral thinking as orthodox solving mechanisms. I did think that 21 was a little … Read more >>

A typically enjoyable and thought-provoking number from Monk.  I didn’t spot a trademark Nina, but I suppose that the four (4,5,4) answers that transect the grid symmetrically are, in themselves, a thematic touch. … Read more >>

At first glance this looked liked it could be one of those lesser-spotted species, a totally athematic Cinephile puzzle. But it turned out that there was actually a healthy dose of climate change … Read more >>

An enjoyable puzzle and just about the right degree of difficulty for a Friday, I felt.   A pretty eclectic spectrum of clues, including everything from a couple of pre-historic chestnuts (e.g. the ETON/NOTE … Read more >>

This turned out to be more of a challenge than I anticpated at first; plain sailing initially, but then got becalmed on the last few clues. At the time of solving, I wasn’t … Read more >>

Adamant seems to be a faithful adherent of the FT’s general style and tone, and this was solid enough fare . A couple of answers (2d, 28a) were new (for me at least) … Read more >>

As is the case with his Guardian puzzles, Cinephile (aka Araucaria) often includes a thematic element or array in his FT publications. This particular puzzle was made slightly less tractable than usual by … Read more >>