Obviously this puzzle would have been set and commissioned well before the recent exams fiascos, but there are some prescient coincidences…
Private Eye/Cyclops
Private Eye (Cyclops / 682) Healthcare Buffoon
Medium difficulty for the Eye. About half in at the first pass and the other half filled-in without too much difficulty. So this is a great crossword to recommend to anyone starting out … Read more >>
Cyclops 681 – Infection Price Tag
Typical Cyclopsean fare, book-ended by two references to ‘members’, neither of which are MPs…but also two uncharacteristic setting/editing slips, at 1A and 20D?
Private Eye (Cyclops / 680) Obnoxious Nobody
It had to happen sometime – I have finally solved one of these in one pass. It took about half hour – I was making notes for the blog as I went so … Read more >>
Cyclops 679 – Stir-Crazy Cabinet Meeting
We are well into ‘post-Covid’ setting now, with ‘lockdown’ and ‘coronavirus’ both getting a mention in the clues. Lockdown frustration still seems to be getting the better of Cyclops, with lots of sexual … Read more >>
Private Eye (Cyclops / 678) Wealth, Unexplained
Solving kicked of quickly with 1A proving to be a write-in for me. The rest of the puzzle wasn’t so easy, only a couple of others cold solved, most others gettable with 1 … Read more >>
Cyclops 677 – Non-stick Morality
A wide variety of references from Cyclops this fortnight, from a popular 70s TV show to the current pandemic, with Trump, Johnson, Clegg and Elizabeth I getting mentions in the clues…
Private Eye (Cyclops / 676) Downing Street Laxity
Cyclops is on a run of relatively easy crosswords lately. This one got finished within the half-hour. Top right quadrant complete and two-thirds filled in by the end of the first pass at … Read more >>
Cyclops 675 – Remedy Target
All four of my periodic blogs have converged on this weekend…good job I haven’t got a lot of other things to do, or places to be!…
Private Eye (Cyclops / 674) Quarantine Crisis
A fairly standard Eye this time. Enjoyable but not difficult. Whistled through solving this. Only 4 unsolved after the first pass and the whole thing wrapped up in under half an hour including … Read more >>
Cyclops 673 – Commerce Adrift
After a week of lockdown, and seemingly no respite in sight, it is reassuring to be able to dip into crosswords, or any other diversionary activity, to get one’s mind off things…that is … Read more >>
Private Eye (Cyclops/672) Upfront Whopper
A much more accessible puzzle this time. Nothing here to trouble us much. Almost a record solve with only 3 left to do after the first pass and they were scattered around so … Read more >>
Cyclops 671 – Extempore Leadership
An irreverent Cyclopsean bimble through the corridors of power and a smattering of Lower 6th Common Room smuttery…all is well with the world!… Bit of a rush to get this out due to … Read more >>
Private Eye ( Cyclops/670 ) Continental Deterrent
A tougher crossword this time – least ways that’s the way I found it. It has some top-notch clues and it was worth re-reading them to do this blog. When I started solving … Read more >>
Cyclops 669 – Disregard Witness
Some fairly standard Cyclops-ean fare this fortnight – an enjoyable, if not too taxing solve… My solving copy doesn’t have any particular notes – I think I made fairly steady progress, although writing … Read more >>