Never knowingly undersolved
Sorry for the late and very rushed blog which meant I had little time to savour this puzzle, just a mad rush to get the puzzle solved and written-up, including much cheating. Thank … Read more >>
My first blog of a new year crossword is a duel with Nestor A grid with lots of letters with little black space – just how I like them. And some lovely fun … Read more >>
Oh dear, a Playfair code-square. And the preamble says that there’s a four-word code phrase, which is going to greatly complicate things. An inauspicious start, so how are things going to work out?
I was really floundering with this grid from Bradman – probably one of the longest times I have spent on an FT puzzle, peppered with words I didn’t know as well (e.g. 14ac, … Read more >>
It’s always a delight to find Puck’s name on a puzzle and this one certainly lived up to expectations. Some of the wordplay was characteristically tricky and there were several penny-dropping moments, producing … Read more >>
A good crossword from Phi today. If there was a Nina in the puzzle it has defeated me. There are a number of words in today’s entry that are not … Read more >>
Much delay this morning I’m afraid. The crossword wouldn’t load because I apparently had too old a version of Java. So I updated that and the same thing happened. I spent ages trying to … Read more >>
A lovely sunny morning, and the usual excellent offering from Redshank. Hurrah. Some excellent definitions here (though 20dn fell a little flat with me), and much splendidly inventive clueing. Thank-you, Redshank. Across 1 … Read more >>
Got through about half of this quickly, then struggled to the end – just wasn’t on the right wavelength for 9ac and 5dn, had never heard of 22,20 and still can’t properly parse … Read more >>
Monday Prize Crossword/Jan 6 Gaff is almost synonymous with topical themed crosswords and this one was no exception: “Ds down today”. Being a non-traditionalist, I had at first no clue what this was … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 4, 2014 I found this a quick and easy puzzle although two clues gave me a little trouble. They were the last two: 23dn (INCUS), … Read more >>
This was a puzzle of two halves for me: at one point I found I’d done all of the left-hand side, with the right side almost completely empty. Fortunately I got there in … Read more >>
Another great puzzle from Monk and only middling difficulty (i.e. merely hard). Thank you Monk.
Once again, as we have come to expect on a Wednesday, an excellently constructed puzzle from Dac with the usual smooth surfaces. We solved this with a friend (‘Joyce II’) – and we … Read more >>
Preamble: A number of clues are afflicted and solvers are advised to follow an expert’s remedy. Having initially found the expert and the affliction, solvers must highlight the remedy in the grid (38 cells). By ‘Eck? By ‘eck, what’s going … Read more >>