Never knowingly undersolved
A thoughtfully constructed Quiptic from Hectence this morning. She’s good at this kind of stuff, you know. There were one or two that took a bit of parsing, but then when you’re learning … Read more >>
It's Monday, it's the Guardian, it's Vulcan…
The March Genius was set by Pasquale, one of the ‘DON …..’ manifestations of the prolific setter Don Manley. Other manifestations are Duck, Quixote, Bradman, Giovanni, and Izetti. Don Manley sets for all … Read more >>
My first thought on seeing this puzzle was how current events have given an unfortunate resonance to ‘Vlad’s pseudonym, and I was going to mention that in this blog – but someone beat me to it with a letter in Monday’s Grauniad, where they suggested he should change it to Vlod, in keeping with ‘cancel culture’…or maybe to show solidarity with the Ukrainian president?
Thank you to Anto. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1. Saw dog wearing lead (7) PROVERB : ROVER(a generic name for a pet dog) contained in(wearing) PB(symbol for the chemical element, … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28719.
A mid-week appearance from Nutmeg, offering a typically elegant and witty puzzle, with lots of ingenious clues and lovely surfaces, as ever. I liked the combination of the 6s, 10, 11, 17, 19, … Read more >>
A fun and tricky solve…
Thank you to Paasquale. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 8. Coastal road — gosh, a suitable place! (8) CORNICHE : COR!(like “gosh!”, an expression of surprise) + NICHE(a suitable place, one … Read more >>
A very nice Monday puzzle from Matilda. Quite heavy on anagrams of various kinds, but there’s nothing wrong with that in a puzzle that aims to be on the easy side. Thanks to … Read more >>
I’m going to pre-empt crypticsue today by calling myself lucky, in having landed a Philistine puzzle to blog, only a month after my last one. It was clear, from a cursory scan of … Read more >>
I can save myself some time by repeating the opening of my blog from last week: “Another great puzzle from Picaroon. Not easy, with some tricky constructions and devious definitions, but well worth … Read more >>
Thank you to Mobo (a tricky new setter). Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1. Search old parts belonging to record? (8,4) QUESTION MARK : QUEST(a search/a hunt for something) + O(abbrev. … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28712.
It’s Brummie setting today’s challenge, so is there a theme today? You never know what to expect with him. I thought at first that 10ac and 4dn might be leading us somewhere but … Read more >>