Never knowingly undersolved
As usual with a Schadenfreude offering there were a lot of unfamiliar words – LYTTA, DONAT, PACHALIC and NITID to name but four! The clues were scupulously fair, though one of them has defeated us for … Read more >>
A very good puzzle, I thought. Smooth surfaces throughout, and nothing too obscure other than one look-up I needed for 11a. Picks for best clues: BLUEBOTTLE, WREN Across 1 BACKHANDER HAND (cards) in … Read more >>
This is the first puzzle by Dac that I have blogged. I didn’t find anything too difficult. I’m not sure how long this took as I did it whilst watching Saturday afternoon football … Read more >>
A new(ish?) setter – Styx seems to be very fastidious about the surface reading of the clues, as these are universally “natural” and concise. However, this flawlessness is almost to a fault in … Read more >>
We haven’t had many Tyrus puzzles, but he is for my money by far the hardest setter on the Indy team. I spent an hour tackling this online last night and managed to … Read more >>
As regular readers will know, I (and others) am not a big fan of Gordius, and while there’s nothing particularly inspiring in this puzzle, I didn’t find much to object to either, apart … Read more >>
Something to look out for here, referred to after the clue explanations. Solving time, 21 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 6 PRECIS LecturE 7 ORRIS Hidden 9 (Guar)DIAN THUS R … Read more >>
Monday Prize Crossword on 18 January 2010 Another easy introduction to the FT week. This puzzle has a wide variety of devices and would be ideal training ground for newbies. ACROSS 1 READ … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 16 I found this puzzle a good bit harder than the average Cincinnus, especially the top-right corner. I got 5A and 7D quickly but the … Read more >>
Got through this one fairly quickly. Noticed on writing it up that the charade pieces for 11ac were all recycled from other clues… Across 1 IN ATTENDANCE =”here”. (ain’t)* + TEN=”five couples” + … Read more >>
An enjoyable solve today. We were told that the answers to asterisked clues had something in common. Fortunately I had come across 13dn in a previous puzzle otherwise I might have had a … Read more >>
The usual lovely thing from Dac. There’s really very little to say because everything fits so well and the clues are almost all clearly-constructed and faultless. Across 1 CO(MIC)OPER A 6 PEER — … Read more >>
This was fun – a very thoroughly-themed and enjoyable puzzle from Virgilius. Whilst not unduly taxing on the whole, I imagine this one will be popular with readers. For my own part, I’ll … Read more >>
I enjoyed solving this puzzle but when it came to writing the blog I realized there were several clues that I wasn’t quite happy with, as noted below. That said, I thought there … Read more >>
A fair-to-middling kind of offering from Paul with some challenging clues as well as some that raised a smile or two especially those cheeky descriptions such as item containing white in 20D. My … Read more >>