Enigmatic Variations

A smaller grid this week – only 121 blank squares, instead of the normal 169. Will this translate into a shorter solving time? The preamble offers a slight cause for concern – if the quotation … Read more >>

Well another shortish preamble this week, put relatively succinctly, the  aim is to find a quotation to fill two answers and the diagonal by discovering the unclued work it is from, then determine how this is … Read more >>

This was a nice straightforward puzzle from Loda, with six members of a group appearing as unclued entries in the grid and two others (not part of the group) appearing as extra words … Read more >>

The full 225 letters this week (unusual for an EV recently?), so value for money from Kruger, and more to blog for your’s truly…but, to paraphrase from John Cleese’s ‘great actor’ in the … Read more >>

I wonder if I was alone in finding this tough. In retrospect, the preamble wasn’t unnecessarily misleading. Nor at any time did I think the clueing unfair. Still, for me this EV was one heck … Read more >>

So a relatively simple preamble this week. Two unclued answers, some answers that don’t fill their available space and some UPWARD MOTION to fill the spaces at the end. All the clues are … Read more >>

Here we are with Oxymoron again (Schadenfreude’s EV pseudonym). A pretty straightforward puzzle this time: eight clues with an extra word with first and last letters spelling out a hint, and the barred-off … Read more >>

An ‘EV’ puzzle in more ways than one, as it turned out! Bit of a complicated preamble – the solver is searching for a ‘gang of four’ who aren’t actually in the grid, … Read more >>

Bonjour! Un petit peu less ceremony with this one – just ten ‘thematically entered’ answers and four unclued entries. Still, there’s some grid highlighting to be done, which always gives one a pleasant … Read more >>

Well – a seriously convoluted pre-amble this week. Pausing only for a sharp intake of breath, here goes – Removal of abbreviations from one clue in each even numbered down column and rearrangement of … Read more >>

Well, it seems that I’m the blogger that gets saddled with all the EVs involving jumbled entries! There are twenty extra words in clues to be discovered, paired and jumbled to form the … Read more >>

I came to this EV tired and jaded after a long weekend away golfing and drinking…(or was that the other way around?)…not having done a crossword of any form for 4 days – … Read more >>

I don’t know what has happened to the scheduled blogger so here is my belated analysis of this puzzle. The note on my copy indicates that I found it hard and the degree … Read more >>

Well a complex preamble this week – certainly one that won’t make sense till 11 down is derived. On first reading it sounds like a puzzle based upon a literary character. Then there’s an … Read more >>

This is the sixth Enigmatic Variations puzzle by Hypnos since the EV blog started at fifteensquared about 18 months ago, and I’ve done four of them! They are usually good fun, so I … Read more >>