Inquisitor

Solving time: no recorded – let’s call it 90 minutes With lots of articles in the papers, it didn’t take much effort to guess a possible theme here – the spare letters message … Read more >>

The preamble to the puzzle indicated that it included 12 unclued entries, four of which (11a, 35a, 22d and 24d) would represent a recent sequence in the correct order. Four pairs of the … Read more >>

After three pretty difficult ones, this was a bit of relief. Most of the “normal” clues were pretty strightforward. One piece of wordplay eluded me for a long time – “Fourteenth place on … Read more >>

It’s always difficult starting a puzzle with several different clues types. Here we had extra words in eight clues, misprints in six and no definition in two. That still leaves plenty of normal … Read more >>

This was a corker!! I’m still not completely convinced that we’ve got it right, but here goes. The missing letters of the across clues instructed you to “INCLUDE PUNCTUATION” while the down clues … Read more >>

The clues for this Seasonal Show were presented in three blocks: Firstly, an unnumbered set of clues to the whole of each of Rows 1, 3, 5, 8, 10 and 12 with the … Read more >>

It’s that time of year! “In the Bleak Midwinter” last week and “The Twelve Days of Christmas” this week. Two of our tiumvirate went to the Temple Church Choir’s carol service at the … Read more >>

This looked like it was going to be a tough puzzle but the theme dropped out quickly and helped me to fill in most of the answers. Initially I considered that Noel might … Read more >>

Solving time: a couple of hours, maybe a bit less. Experienced Inquisitor solvers will know already that Eddie (from Eddie the Eagle, referring to the Indie masthead as well as the ski-jumper) is … Read more >>

There were three important parts to the preamble: 1. Every across clue lacked a definition and the wordplay generated a word which could be associated with the entry at that number – i.e … Read more >>

Good  Crossword by Loda! Ten countries  with new names had to be written as their old names in the grid, and ten old names had to be substituted for their new names before the clues … Read more >>

Solving time: about 90 mins, mostly without books. A fairly easy puzzle this, without anything too fiendish as a last step. My biggest problem was leaving my copy on a train after writing … Read more >>

The preamble stated that ‘before solving, one letter must be changed in the definition part of 25 clues, the new letters all being different.  The missing 26th letter is to be revealed as … Read more >>

By the time you read this I should be at the top of Manau Kea in Hawaii. Unless I turn out to get altitude sickness in which case I’ll be in a bar … Read more >>

Reasonably easy theme to spot, the title referring to the colours of the rainbow arch (Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain). Most clues quite straightforward, but a bit muddling was the use … Read more >>