Never knowingly undersolved
A lovely simple puzzle from Salamanca. Clear, straightforward cluing with no misprints or extra words made solving this fairly easy; certainly easier than some of Salamanca’s Listener puzzles. The only devices to throw … Read more >>
I think Ploy must have a fetish for anagrams, or at least that’s the way it seemed to me when I was solving this puzzle. However, having said that, there were some pleasing surfaces, … Read more >>
Clues were given in alphabetical order and had to be entered where they would fit in the grid. When arranged in convetional order the initial letters would give instructions, and you then had … Read more >>
I might be being unduly unfair but I was dissatisfied with this puzzle overall. On the plus side the idea was neat and simple and many of the clues were good and relatively … Read more >>
What a delightful way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon, letters latent for the across clues and extra words in the down ones, just my cup of tea. There … Read more >>
Subsidiary indications in 32 clues lead to extra letters which spell out a novel and its author. The remaining ten clues lack definitions and, either alone or paired, are thematic. 22A is a … Read more >>
Minimal blog crammed in between a busy work week and a holiday. That also means I’ll be unable to comment on comments so mistakes and omissions will go uncorrected. I struggled initially as … Read more >>
There is no point in repeating or paraphrasing the preamble here because solvers and any other interested parties will have already read it. I made slow but steady progress with this puzzle though … Read more >>
The grid represents some “fields of action”, and so long as they’re not football or rugby fields I should be OK. The subsidiary indication in each down clue has an extra letter; these … Read more >>
Jophu is another new setter to me so I didn’t know what to expect with this one. The clues were normal and, as it turned out, fairly straightforward. There were some very easy … Read more >>
We were told that 8 answers had been affected by a quotation in ODQ, and its author, which ran clockwise round the perimeter plus 3 squares in row 2 (see below). The quotation … Read more >>
No EV last week, it got bumped by a £500 Cryptic (I bet that had a few entries). However, the number still got used, so it’s onwards to 844 this week. The EV … Read more >>
I’d not come across Flashy-hat before in any of the usual outlets so I wasn’t sure whether to expect heavy meal to keep me eating over the holiday or a light starter before … Read more >>
On my initial run through the clues I had a feeling that this might be the first EV that I’d failed to solve, particularly as I was still struggling with the final stage … Read more >>
I don’t know whether I feel relieved that the first two puzzles I’ve blogged have been so easy, or cheated out of a few hours entertainment. I know that the EV is generally … Read more >>