Inquisitor

Solvers’ hint #1: Check the date before tackling a crossword – sometimes it makes the theme blindingly obvious very quickly.Bloggers’ hint #1: If you take your crossword folder on a plane, complete with … Read more >>

Solving time: 43 minutes – and should have been faster One of those puzzles where the setting achievement seems considerably greater than the solving one. The unclued entries that must be “expanded to … Read more >>

Just in time for Easter, Nutmeg provided us with a crossword about that most ubiquitous of nannies, Mary Poppins although more exactly, it was based on one word used in that movie. Generally, … Read more >>

Solving time: 10 hours plus, with assistance After bragging somewhere about finishing the first 12 Inquisitor puzzles, I guess it was inevitable that I’d come unstuck on no. 13. This time, it’s my … Read more >>

Despite the sombre occasion which inspired the theme of Phi’s puzzle, this was an enjoyable crossword to solve.  The clues were not overly complex, and, despite taking an inordinate amount of time to … Read more >>

Solving time: about 5 hours, but I cheated. I found the end of this puzzle extremely difficult, not being able to spot the novel for ages. After finding answers to all but a couple … Read more >>

This was the easiest Inquisitor of the year so far in my opinion. Once I had worked out that the entries at 13ac and 43ac led to the Seven Sages, and that 42ac … Read more >>

Solving time: 3-4 hours An nice example of a fairly standard advanced cryptic puzzle type – “entries mangled according to a theme to be identified”. In this case, there are some thematic entries … Read more >>

This was a very frustrating puzzle for me. It appeared very easy at first, but then I hit a wall with the last six or seven clues. It wasn’t that I couldn’t work … Read more >>

Solving time 2-3 hours I joked with Loonapick a couple of weeks ago that even-numbered Indies were easy and odd-numbered ones hard. Not now, with last week’s Offa’s Dyke marathon and this (for … Read more >>

 If I had looked up Kruger’s bio before tackling this puzzle, I may have saved myself some time, as he has listed among his hobbies long-distance walking.    The title of the puzzle had … Read more >>

Solving time: at least 4 hours – maybe 6 A theme with an echo of Phi’s Inquisitor #3 – can’t remember doing a Psyche puzzle before, and have no idea who it is. … Read more >>

Once I worked out the theme of this crossword, I rattled through it at a fair rate of knots, and completed all bar 4 clues in about half an hour. Then I got … Read more >>

(an anonymous puzzle in the paper, but the setter has already been identified elsewhere) Solving time: ages Found this one really tough – maybe the “blogger’s curse” (anything you have to write about … Read more >>

I have never come across the pseudonym Ploy before, so I don’t know who compiled this highly topical puzzle. I got off to a very quick start, realising that certain squares had two … Read more >>