Never knowingly undersolved
Chandler has produced a puzzle for us this week which fits the bill for a Quiptic well, I would aver. But as I keep saying, what the beginners and less experienced solvers thought … Read more >>
Sunday finds Filbert’s weekly slot
I’m afraid I didn’t enjoy this very much. It was incredibly difficult; I used electronic aids quite freely once I became stuck, and some of the clues seemed rather clunky and impenetrable, but that’s probably just my incompetence. No doubt in due course all will be explained. (On the other hand one or two I thought were very good.)
A reasonably straightforward crossword from Azed today (straightforward that is if you can handle the weird words, something you should be able to do if you have a copy of Chambers to hand).
Apologies for the delay. Completely forgot. Early November brings a late blog of a puzzle from Bluebird No theme that I can observe. Favourite clue has to be 1dn for the misdirection with … Read more >>
This is the thirty-second Guardian Quick Cryptic, a series of 11 x 11 crosswords designed to support beginners learning cryptic crosswords. The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here. There is a summary of the tricks used in the first six months here. This puzzle can be found here.
Puzzle from the Weekend FT of November 2, 2024
A first outing of 2024 for Arachne, I think…and lucky me that it falls on my blog slot…
A nice challenge from MUDD this Friday.
It’s Friday so, unsurprisingly we have an Independent puzzle from Phi. I struggled a bit with the intended definition for TOSSPOT (1 across). Is the clue an &Lit or is … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/29535.
A Thursday morning challenge from Twin.
It’s only three weeks since I blogged the last Maskarade puzzle – and there’s a clear sense of déjà vu at 22dn. I found this mostly straightforward, with a fair mix of anagrams … Read more >>
Steerpike has provided this morning’s challenge.
“All clues are normal, but a letter must DROP out wherever it occurs before entry in each down answer. Dropped letters, in clue order, spell two phrases pinpointing a year when an event befell the unclued entry. In the final grid, the event must be re-enacted by replacing one entry with another leaving empty cells. All entries are real words or names at every stage (ignoring gaps).”