Never knowingly undersolved
It’s Boatman providing the challenge today, with a theme that must surely be unmissable. Today, it was not so much a case of spotting the theme as chasing down some knotty parsing but … Read more >>
A slow, tough, and enjoyable puzzle – favourites were 11ac, 26ac, 2dn, 19dn, and 20dn. Thanks to Picaroon.
This was one of those puzzles where I was staring at a nearly empty grid for a long time, and then everything, or almost everything, fell into place quite quickly. Getting the long … Read more >>
Thanks to Anto for today’s Quiptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 She can’t grasp novel I mused about (5,2,4) VENUS DE MILO : Anagram of(… about) NOVEL I MUSED. Defn: … Read more >>
A very Monday puzzle… Not really my cup of tea, I’m afraid, but a gentle introduction to the week that did not require any particular general knowledge (other than for 27ac, but I’ll … Read more >>
Last Friday’s blogger, Andrew, said that he was confidently expecting a Paul puzzle that day. When that didn’t happen, I was equally confidently expecting a Paul puzzle on Saturday, since there hadn’t been … Read more >>
From the preamble to the last Qaos puzzle I blogged, in July: ‘It’s always a real pleasure to find Qaos’ name on a puzzle I’m down to blog – except there’s always pressure, … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27972. I was happy not to have to blog yesterday’s Vlad, but I found this one not an easy puzzle. It is notable for the number of … Read more >>
Vlad is giving us today’s challenge: it’s not easy but a bit of effort is eventually rewarded. A few of these had fairly obvious answers (at least with a couple of crossers) but … Read more >>
A slow and tough solve, with a lot of clever and witty cluing. Favourites 10ac, 11ac, 3dn, 4dn, 13dn, and especially 23ac.
A pitch-perfect puzzle from Pan this morning, with shedloads of stunning surfaces. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition cad clue as definition (xxxx)* anagram anagrind = anagram indicator [x] … Read more >>
Once a regular setter, Orlando only appears rarely these days, so it was a delight to see his name on today’s puzzle, especially after the equally welcome surprise of fellow old-timer Brendan on … Read more >>
Unless I have missed something devious, this month’s Genius from Qaos seemed relatively gentle… The preamble states that: “Half the solutions must have a letter removed before entry in the grid (only valid … Read more >>
We really struggled with this one, perhaps because of a combination of some tough clues, obscure answers, and the grid being low on checked letters. Good puzzle (thank-you Paul!) with some wonderful surface … Read more >>
I was confidently expecting today’s setter to be Paul, but it was certainly no disappointment to see Brendan instead (not that I have anything against Paul). We have a theme, of course, pointed … Read more >>