Never knowingly undersolved
Clashes in four cells, four unclued lights and a string of four letters to be changed after filling the grid. There was nothing too disconcerting there and, as the founder of the Listener … Read more >>
A fun challenge with neat surfaces and some tricky parsing. My favourites were 8ac, 11ac, 12ac, 26ac, and 7dn. Thanks to Brockwell
We probably get a puzzle from Phi every 9 Fridays out of 10 in the Independent. Today is no exception
Komorník announces the publication of his Cryptic Challenge for 2025. There are 16 puzzles to be solved, and a required response sent, before 1st July this year.
My third Eccles blog in a month: I’m not complaining, but some of my colleagues might feel they’re missing out.
Good to see another (final?) puzzle from the pirate before he goes into setting Purdah in his new job at the Telegraph. A smooth and witty set of clues, as we’ve come to … Read more >>
Gurney is today's setter in the FT.
“Clashes in 13 cells can be resolved to help reveal, obliquely, either a thematic question or a LOCAL DISTURBANCE. Select the question, thus eliminating the problem, and thematically modify four answers (of a kind) to illustrate its answer (30 cells), involving characters well-placed to deal with the issue. Enumerations refer to grid entries, which include non-words after thematic treatment. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
It took me a while to get into this one, as the special instruction is a bit… mysterious.
What is going on? No Eccles today! But we have Bard’s 5th puzzle instead.
A typical Qaos puzzle.
Filbert has provided a crossword for this week’s theme day. I found this to be medium-to-hard in terms of difficulty, yet challenging and entertaining in equal measure. The way into today’s theme is … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29603.
This is my 100th Financial Times blog. It is hard to believe that I have been posting here since 2022. By now, solving the solid clues of a Bobcat puzzle feels like chatting with an old friend. I very much appreciate all of the comments and support I have received so far.