Guardian Genius

Well, I must say these Genius puzzles vary a lot in difficulty. After two hard ones from Araucaria and Tramp, I found this one from Crucible hardly more difficult than a standard daily … Read more >>

It was my privilege to blog Tramp’s first published puzzle (I think) which appeared in this series six months ago (Genius 91).  Since then he has published non-prize cryptics in the Guardian (and … Read more >>

To say that I struggled with this one would be an understatement. I can usually finish a Genius in under an hour but this time it was nearly that long per clue. Perseverance … Read more >>

A very clever puzzle from Lavatch. Below I’ve set out the clues with the answers they directly lead to, and below that I’ll explain what has to be done to them to get … Read more >>

Well, I thought I was getting on just fine with this puzzle, but I was completely stuck on two answers, 17a and 21a. None of my resources — dictionaries, word lists, TEA, Google, … Read more >>

In the preamble we were told that seven clues require ill-advised exchanges before solutions are entered in the grid.  The resulting solutions are non-words.  In these seven clues, the definitions (indicated by the … Read more >>

(Sorry for the late posting – last minute delays writing this up due to work commitments etc) Maybe it’s just me, but I think the Genius puzzles are getting generally harder. Number 91 … Read more >>

Solving time : about a day and a half. I found this hard, partly because of a grammatical error in the instructions which made them more obscure than was necessary. There were two … Read more >>

I am a last minute stand-in and it may be difficult for me to remember what I did a month ago, particularly with the festivities in between, so please excuse any errors or … Read more >>

A very nicely constructed crossword, with a “word chain” (missing alternate links) running through the 6 letter answers. The complete chain (with the missing links emphasized) is: 1d BOTHER / HERBAL / 3d … Read more >>

Apologies for the late appearance of a post for this puzzle. The scheduled blogger forgot that it was her turn and did not solve it so I am standing in at the last … Read more >>

Six months have passed, so it must be my turn to blog a Guardian Genius again.   I have solved one or two Lavatch puzzles in The Listener so I knew this would … Read more >>

The special instructions were quite clear, but it took a few readings, and a few answers, beofre I fully got the sense of them. Apart from that, this puzzle turned out less daunting … Read more >>

I found this easier than some recent Genius puzzles. There was only one obscure word and most of the clues were fairly straightforward. The requirement here was to identify how the answers to … Read more >>

This month’s theme involved removing words from a number of across clues and then putting anagrams of them in some of the down clues. Two further unclued entries were to be found by … Read more >>