Independent on Sunday 1011 by Quixote (28 June 2009)
Solving time, 15 mins, so fairly easy. * = anagram ACROSS 1/12 CALL OF THE WILD Book by the American writer Jack London 4 CU TS OUT Cu = Copper (stout)* 9 ROUGH-HEWN … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,109 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword on 22 June 2009 dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,108 by Cincinnus
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 20 A fairly run-of-the-mill puzzle from Cincinnus this week. I especially liked 9A. Across 1. METHUSELAH – double definition 6. ABUT – A (an) + … Read more >>
Independent 7085/Dac
The usual high-class Dac puzzle, with as always a succession of natural and deceptively simple surfaces. Across 1 SNOWDRIFTS — (winds frost)* — frost? I suppose in the sense that snow itself is caused by a … Read more >>
Guardian 24,740 – Brendan
I’d like to dedicate this blog to the beginners who sometimes comment about their dismay at how easy us bloggers say certain puzzles are. This one is, on paper, not too bad but … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,117 / Cinephile
Not a good start to the second half of the year for me as there are two clues I’m unable to parse (9a & 12a). I also think one of the clues is … Read more >>
Independent 7084 by Virgilius
An incredible puzzle – absolutely brilliant. In line with 14 across EVERY across solution had the name of a tree within the word as an internal part. The clues are, as always from … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,116 / Courtier
I don’t recognise the setter’s pseudonym so it is either a new contributor or a rebranding of an existing one for the purpose of this tennis related puzzle. Nothing particularly difficult today though … Read more >>
Guardian 24,739 – Araucaria
dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram What a delightful offering from The Master … Read more >>
Independent 7083 by Hypnos
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def I got most of this done fairly quickly, but then got stuck on 1,2,10,17 and 21. Most of these involved obscure or unusual words. There … Read more >>
Guardian 24,738 / Rover
A surprise not to have Rufus this morning but I remember that, a while ago, Andrew came up with the lovely description of Rover as ‘Rufus-lite’. Some very easy anagrams and several cryptic … Read more >>
Azed 1934 – Right and Left
The luck of the draw is giving me all the Azed specials to blog these days. Right and Left is another one that comes up fairly regularly: I think the format was devised … Read more >>
Everyman No. 3273 (June 21st).
Our first blog (as the The Trafites), and we look forward to doing this. A fairly straight forward Everyman this week. 25ac is unusual as we have seen RED RUM used for the … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1,009 (21/06/09)
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Top stuff as always. I think I’ve managed to explain everything, but there’s a couple I’m a bit shaky on. Across 1 STICK INSECT – … Read more >>
Guardian 24,731 (Sat 20 Jun)/Paul – Sweet sixteen
Solving time: 13:44 This seemed about average difficulty for Paul, though I think I made heavy weather of it. As always there are some extremely inventive clues, and the lack of hyperlinks in … Read more >>