Never knowingly undersolved
Everyman seems to have listened to us, or at any rate to someone, because this is a more straightforward crossword than some of his earlier ones. No major criticisms: perhaps the surfaces could sometimes have been honed a bit, but generally I think it’s pretty good and sound.
Definitions underlined in crimson. Indicators (anagram, hidden, homophone, missing letter, etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.
“Each across clue contains a word that must be removed before solving. The first and last letters from these words, in clue order, explain changes required, to varying degrees of effect, in all … Read more >>
Azed reaches a major milestone in his setting career today. We have a plain puzzle from last Sunday to consider first in this blog.
First time I have had to blog a puzzle by Stamp and I wondered what I might be in for.
Since their first puzzle about 2 years ago they have always had something more to offer, in terms of a theme of the day etc.
(I’ll stay tight-lipped about whether I managed to solve the previous puzzles I attempted. I recall some have been on the hard side for me.)
This week’s 11 x 11 crossword from the Guardian, intended to teach cryptic crosswords, found here
A nice solid puzzle in this issue.
Not too hard, except for the last clue – funny how it’s always the last clue solved that’s tricksiest.
Most was filled in on the first pass, but a couple resisted till the end.
Last week Eileen wrote of the ‘delight’ of landing an Arachne puzzle to blog, ‘especially on a Saturday, when there’s more time to savour it‘. This week it was more like the dread in the pit of the stomach on finding one has an Enigmatist! But at least it is a Saturday, so I should have plenty of time to struggle through it…
It was good to see Skylark again, one of the very few lady setters. Literary themes are one of her specialities and we were going to be hunting for a book title in … Read more >>
It’s over a year since I last blogged a puzzle by Brockwell, so I was very pleased to see his name this morning. There’s a nicely varied set of clues, with neat constructions … Read more >>
A fun puzzle from ZAMORCA today. Thanks to the setter for dishing out a treat.
Independent puzzles on a Friday are usually set by Phi and today is no exception.
Tricky in parts and an enjoyable solve – my favourites were 20ac, 21ac, 24ac, and 20dn. Thanks to Brummie
Brunel has provided a lot of Sunday puzzles lately, but is now back in a weekday slot.
Jason is today's setter.
“In ten clues, part or all of the definition has had a letter added and the result jumbled, sometimes creating additional wordage. These clues need to be reconstructed before solving and then the ten extra letters arranged to describe how the answers to these clues are to be treated before (to complete the TRIPLE CHANGE) being entered at a different location in the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”