smiffy

Across 1 TARIFF – RA(<) in tiff. 4 AT RANDOM – Rand in atom.  Thank god for an accurate definition “indiscriminately”. My current peeve of the month is people wh;ve started using the … Read more >>

This was probably my most rapid completion of a Cinephile puzzle in donkey’s years.  Unfortunately, I ended up guessing incorrectly at 4D so I can’t claim a correct solution!  Plenty of double definition … Read more >>

This is the first puzzle I’ve had a crack at, let alone blogged, in a little while so was relieved to be reintroduced into the shallow end of the pool.  While solving, there … Read more >>

Still no sign of the recent puzzles online, and I’m far from the madding crowd today so unlikely to lay my hands on the paper itself.  If you have been fortunate enough to … Read more >>

Another solid outing from The Unpronounceable One, but he’s certainly produced better in the past.  There were a few points along the way where I had an uncanny  sense of deja vu, although … Read more >>

Nothing pant-wettingly exciting here, but a nice vein of humour running through some of the clues, which raised a few smiles.  Please excuse the slightly late blog (again).  While the FT have certainly … Read more >>

Plenty of bread and butter stuff, including a liberal sprinkling of double definitions in the downs.  I think  I was fortunate in that I had pretty much instant recall of the handful of … Read more >>

Not too often that Mudd makes a mid-week appearance, and this puzzle felt like a good (non-too-fiendish) fit for a summer’s Thursday. Across 1 SNOWDROP – snow + drop 6 SLEEPY – lee … Read more >>

I found this a well-balanced and consistent puzzle.  Nothing too clever-clever, but plenty of  decent clues that seemed more admirable on review (compared  to at the moment of solving).  If this has been … Read more >>

This felt like a tougher than average puzzle from Flimsy, although that impression may be influenced by the longest/quadrant-linking entries being particularly slow to come to me.  Commiserations to the setter on having … Read more >>

A late solve, and an even later posting. But better late than never, as was the case last Thursday. After the first couple of across clues, I suspected that we were on for … Read more >>

Other than a couple of (literally) lavatorial answers at 1A and 18, I can find little comment-worthy stuff in this puzzle.  In the double-edged words of an erstwhile history teacher of mine, “It’s … Read more >>

An overabundance of reversal devices today but, overall, a satisfying puzzle.  I’m far from confident that I’ve plumped for the right guess at 13A though (assuming that’s it’s some kind of cryptic/punning definition?) … Read more >>

Slim-pickings for the anagram fiends from Mudd today, but a liberal smattering of compounds and double definitions. Across1 DECOCT – Dec + Oct.4 SPIFFING – s + piff[l]ing.9 MONKEY – Mon (three calendar … Read more >>

Some bog-standard gridonomics from Orense today. The word PILOT appearing in the left hand column caught my eye, but the opposite edge doesn’t seem to contain anything related by way of a continuation. … Read more >>