FT

Are you impressed with Cincinnus? I am more and more mightily impressed with Cincinnus. I find my view of various compilers being deepened and refined by the task of blogging their puzzles. What … 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 >>

Across 1. CHEESE – Cryptic def. 4. REASON – (Sane or)* 8. A,C,COUNT(=tell) 9. PFENNIG – 100 pfennigs to an old German mark 11. ASPIRATION – (a pianist or)* 12. LEES – “leas” … 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 >>

Solving time: 11 minutes Apologies for the late posting but those nice folks on the FT website didn’t put today’s (or yesterday’s) puzzles up until late tonight.  A very easy puzzle with too … Read more >>

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 23, 2007 A tiny bit of a theme here: beheading for crimes against the state. For me this puzzle proved a little easier than most … Read more >>

IO was another new name to me until I checked the Setters page here and found that he is also Nimrod and Enigmatist, which explained a lot. Unusual to see a preamble in … Read more >>

Even though his name is Mudd here – it’s Paul in the Guardian. I definitely solved this more quickly than the typical Paul – so maybe there is something to the theory that … Read more >>

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 16, 2007 Across 1. ENGLANDER – *(GREENLAND) 6. TORCH – double definition. 9. STAID – homophone 10. NOTEPAPER – reverse(ETON) + PAPER. Very clever! 11. … 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 >>

Another FT, another new name for me. I really enjoyed this one – lots of excellent clues and just the right amount of difficulty. Across 1 (PUT ONE’S HAND)* – nice anagram and … 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 >>

Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 9, 2007 Across 1. PAWNSHOP – PA*(SHOWN)P. I had to look up “uncle” in a dictionary to learn that it has a slang meaning of … Read more >>

Good fun, and reasonably easy although 15A and 4D held me up a bit for reasons explained below. I didn’t realise the FT had so many setters on their team; as well as … 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 >>