Enigmatic Variations

Quite a complex preamble this week – additional letters in the wordplay of the across clues, additional words in the down clues and ten unclued entries, seven of which required modification. So what about … Read more >>

Piccadilly has set puzzles for all the series, although the last five years has seen him (Mick Willey) setting for Enigmatic Variations. He is also that rare beast, someone who sets both word … Read more >>

The preamble seemed quite straightforward, no extra letters etc in the wordplay just the possible modification of six across answers and twelve down ones before entering them in the grid. I started with … Read more >>

Five clues have no definition. That sounds easy, since that leaves over fifty other normal clues that presumably do. Little did I know …! Despite seeing some 4-letter words beginning with I, a … Read more >>

Just over three years and three months ago I wrote this blog. I think it was my first for Fifteensquared. Since that Independent puzzle I have blogged the Guardian, Everyman, Azed, Inquisitor and … Read more >>

It’s been the pantomime season and so here was a topical puzzle from Charybdis, with a neat little twist at the end. Some of the clues were rather tricky, even by EV standards, … Read more >>

A puzzle entitled Eggheads in this month’s Magpie (January 2010) and French Polish in last week’s Inquisitor (#1108, 09/01/2010) are Nutmeg’s most recent offerings, and here we are with Prime Suspect. In this … Read more >>

The first few answers I got were an across answer that was normal and 4dn for which I though STOP was a satisfactory answer. So it took a few minutes to work out … Read more >>

A fairly gentle, but enjoyable, start to the EV new year from Loda, though it is a good job that a full copy of ‘The Bridal of Triermain’ is available on-line because, not … Read more >>

Lots going on in this preamble: a person appearing as an abbreviation (eh?), clues without definitions, unclued entries, and wordplay leading to an extra letter not entered. Plus something that appears in ODQ, … Read more >>

Oddly, I had just completed a Shark puzzle in Magpie before downloading the EV and discovering that it too was a Shark. I found the Magpie puzzle relatively easy but this one proved … Read more >>

There were quite a few easy, or relatively easy, clues in this puzzle so I had 90% of the grid (excluding the perimeter) filled in very quickly. It was then time to look … Read more >>

I have no idea what the title means, although it does sound a bit like a Swedish clothing company … or is that Hennes & Mauritz? Each across clue has a misprint, sometimes … Read more >>

I usually enjoy Samuel puzzles and this one was no exception. His puzzles are usually science-based or themed on old-chestnut jokes. This one was neither of these. Instead it was based on a … Read more >>

Misprints in the majority of definitions and twelve answers to be altered before entry according to the preamble, but no indication that these could both apply to the same clue. Also, ‘majority’ had … Read more >>