Never knowingly undersolved
Christmas Prize Puzzle on 24 December. “Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the grid. Geographic isometry the Reverend had hid.” Thematic clues are denoted below as “grid entry {correspondingly-clued city/country}”. Of … Read more >>
A very enjoyable puzzle from Virgilius. For my own part, found this to be one of the easiest Saturday puzzles I can remember, finishing unaided in roughly 20 minutes – although I don’t … Read more >>
I’ve been very fortunate today – one of my favourite setters, who did not disappoint, giving us a pleasant literary theme, that was not too dominant, with some deft interlinking and flawless cluing, … Read more >>
Oddly, I had just completed a Shark puzzle in Magpie before downloading the EV and discovering that it too was a Shark. I found the Magpie puzzle relatively easy but this one proved … Read more >>
There is something to look for here, referred to after the clue explanations, solving time 22 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 7 REMITTANCE (Meter it can)* 9 UREA hidden 10 … Read more >>
On the first pass through the clues, with only a few entries in the grid, I thought this one was going to be difficult. On the contrary, it turned out to be quite … Read more >>
Gordius is not one of my favouruite setters, and this puzzle has done nothing to change my opinion. There’s nothing seriously wrong with it, I suppose, but just a few clues that have … Read more >>
As always with Dac, a whole lot of transparently simple and elegant clues that leave one (me, at any rate) wondering how it was that they ever presented any problem. Yet some of … Read more >>
Monday Prize Crossword on 28 December 2009 Falcon gave me cause for pause with three new words I have never heard of. Otherwise, not too difficult for an FT week-opener. ACROSS 1 SUPPER … Read more >>
Happy New Year to all! Some interesting clues from Jason today, but as usual, I’m afraid, also a few that didn’t quite seem to work. Across 9 INSTANTER STAN (Laurel of Laurel and … Read more >>
An excellent themed puzzle from Merlin, quite hard, solving time 38 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 CUD DIE A horse, like many of the across answers 4 C (dUCK) … Read more >>
Araucaria, as usual, combines a great sense of humour with his enigmatic style of clueing. I particularly like his well-disguised definitions such as playgirl for Cressida and Great king for Alexander. Very challenging … Read more >>
Well, well! I wonder how familiar Raich will be to Independent-solving Fifteensquareders 😉 I’ve tackled a few barred crosswords by Raich, including an Inquisitor that earned me a nice bottle of champagne, but … Read more >>
I enjoyed this start to the week. It is all that you might expect from Rufus with the usual imaginative cryptic definitions. Across 8 RAW-BONED: RAW (uncooked) + BONED (filleted) 9 EERIE: EER … Read more >>
This year the theme is the Dumb Britain section which takes questions and silly answers that contestants to popular quiz programmes have provided. The trick is to guess what the flailing contestant might … Read more >>