Private Eye/Cyclops

This giant (27*27) crossword offered an substantial £250 prize. This year it used the Eye’s regular Pseuds Corner column for its material and we had to find an absolutely eye-wateringly priggish piece from … Read more >>

Because I have some trouble using the “less than” sign to indicate reversals in these blogs I noticed that unusually there were no reversals in this crossword.   No totally straight Cryptic Defs either.  … Read more >>

When I solved this I particularly enjoyed it.  That could be because I found a bit of piece a quiet and finished it uninterrupted for a change, but it is a solid product … Read more >>

I don’t time myself when solving crosswords. I know I’m not very fast compared to most other people on this blog, and frankly it’s a bit late to start doing that now. However … Read more >>

There are occasions when the answer to a clue is a word or its reverse, and there is nothing in the clue to indicate which.  So you end up relying on crossing checking … Read more >>

This issue brought us the usual fare in the style we come to expect from our optically-challenged friend. Across 7 NEIGHBOURS – (IGNORE BUSH)* I liked “soft” as the anagrind 8 GSOH – … Read more >>

Excellent stuff from Cyclops in this issue.  A few really tricky clues which I would never get without the crossing letters, but enough that could be solved cold to get going.  A couple … Read more >>

It’s been a busy time for Maggie lately, dropping in on her old abode to see what colour Gordon’s painted the walls, meeting Rudolph Giuliani, and of course appearing in the Eye Crossword … Read more >>

Going back in time in US politics in this offering with two men called Dean. Across 7 DEMEANS  –  ME in DEAN’S  –  John Dean is the Nixon advisor here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Dean 8 UP … Read more >>

NORWICH is an acronym for “kNickers Off Ready When I Come Home” as used by WWII soldiers when writing to their loved one to avoid the censors. Basically SWALK for the randy. Did … Read more >>

… and two erections that were not “up” – giving the lie to my pronouncement a few weeks ago that “erection” often means “up” in the Eye puzzle. Some good examples in here … Read more >>

Gordon Brown gets more of a work-out this time in the early clues, as “leader” and is often useful to suggest one of the short “brown” colours, tan, dun, etc. I might not … Read more >>

I’m feeling a bit “undone” myself at the moment – a fortnight into the smoking ban and thus a fortnight into my latest attempt to forego the evil weed. How can I possibly … Read more >>

The Eye Crossword normally takes every opportunity to be rude, funny, and disrespectful to authority, just like the magazine. Often there are references to in-jokes, magazine nicknames, fictitious Eye columnists etc. that mean … Read more >>

From today we will be blogging the Cyclops puzzles that appear in Private Eye magazine. This represents a shift from our current policy of covering puzzles that appear in national newspapers but it’s … Read more >>