Financial Times 13523 / Bradman
As Shuchi is not available today, I am writing this, so the blog stays in India! I enjoyed solving the puzzle, which is none-too-difficult. Across 1 PRE-RAPHAELITES – anag. of HITLER-APPEASER 10 RIFLE … Read more >>
Site Outage
Apologies for the site being unavailable from early yesterday evening until about 11am today. The hosting company suspended the 15² account due to a claimed excessive cpu usage which was supposedly causing performance … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,522 / Styx
I found this a lot trickier than is typical the case from Styx, but I’m not sure that my brain is firing on all cylinders today so it could just be a reflection … Read more >>
Independent 7493 by Eimi
So it’s Eimi today, normally this would be a wake up to look for hidden stuff or clues about the date etc, but if there is anything I’ve missed it. There’s singers, songs … Read more >>
Guardian 25147 / Araucaria
A fairly tough puzzle from Araucaria, I thought. Well, I found that filling the grid wasn’t too difficult, but there are a few I can’t explain… The introductory text “A puzzle for today” … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,513 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword on 11 October 2010 Another no-sweater from Dante and his slick wordplay to start the FT week. ACROSS 1 SLIGHT Minor shows discourtesy (6) dd but what is the function … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,512 by Mudd
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 9 I found the top-left corner of this puzzle challenging. Clue 9A (RIPSNORTER) is a difficult one but uses a darned good cryptic definition. Mudd … Read more >>
Independent 7,492 by Dac
Goodness, this was a bit more of a bruising than I expected today. In fact I really struggled, resorting first to “Reveal Letter” and eventually to “Reveal” simply to get this post filed … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,521 / Aardvark
Normally Aardvark only puts in an appearance once a month, usually on a Wednesday, but this is his second outing in the space of two weeks. Mostly straightforward, though I have a slight … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1147: Conundrum by Nimrod
“Each clue yields a superfluous letter …” (alert: it might not be from the wordplay, but in the definition, or elsewhere?). These give a conundrum, three possible answers, and the initials of the … Read more >>
Guardian 25,146 – Auster
A pretty easy puzzle from Auster (who I don’t think we’ve seen for a while), with a lot of rather obvious charades and anagrams. Pleasant enough, but nothing stands out as particularly notable. … Read more >>
Independent 7,491/Punk
Time was a Tuesday blogger could rest assured that he’d be in for a relatively gentle Virgilius every other week, but with the master of the themed puzzle on a break, the overall … Read more >>
Guardian 25145 Boatman – Fluid Floral Fandango
Boatman has woven an intricate set of clues around the word flower, which can take on more than one meaning. I found the clues very challenging, taking me nearly an hour to unravel. … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,520 / Armonie
A quick solve today. I download the FT crossword just after 7 pm New York time, and solve it on the train ride out of Manhattan. This one fell before we crossed the … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1,077 (10/10/10)
Interesting week for me, this one. I made a good start, but found it very difficult to finish off. Still, here it is, finally. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across … Read more >>