Write the real title here by Komornik

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After scheduling this blog, I decided that I had to come back and add something –  it is our 800th blog on 225!

It’s Joyce blogging again. I have to admit that I did not attempt to solve the puzzle before blogging. Last year Komornik set a puzzle which took us ages to unravel and we had to cheat at the end. We found many of the clues were challenging to say the least. As Bert and I have ended up blogging five puzzles between us, I decided to look at the parsings for each clue as I progressed through the blog and work out whether I would have had any chance of solving them.

So…. here’s the false title that Komornik submitted with the puzzle plus the preamble:

Puzzle that conveys vital information, contrarily expressed as a number of letters (for want of a proper title) by Komorník

All seven-letter entries (one thematically always found abbreviated) and 40% of five-letter entries exemplify what has often entertained us (three words, ignoring an article). All other clues contain a surplus word, whose initial letters define the theme. Solutions include a trade name and several very well-known proper names. You may, if you wish, write the real title here:

and the puzzle…

S & B 2024 Komorník

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S&B 2024 – another by A. Bailey

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Adrian Bailey (not sure if he has a setting monicker) has kindly sent a couple of puzzles for the York S&B meet, even though he couldn’t make the event himself. This one could be said to be ‘on the money’… (For anyone who wasn’t there but would like to try the puzzle before reading the blog, it should be at this link here)

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S&B 2024 – Dalibor

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Dalibor, aka Sil van den Hoek, a doyen of this site, has sent a puzzle for the delectation and delight of the S&B 2024 crowd, even though he won’t be able to join the festivities…much missed… (For anyone who wasn’t there but would like to try the puzzle before reading the blog, it should be at this link here)

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Azed 2731

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Azed provides us with a plain puzzle this week.       Azed seems to have been scouring the dictionary for alternative spellings this week.   I counted six entries that were not … Read more >>

S&B 2024 by A. Bailey

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The puzzle may be found here:

https://www.fifteensquared.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Armistice-4Oct10_Redacted.pdf

This puzzle definitely felt like a change of pace for me, with some of the cluing outside the conventions of the puzzles that I normally solve. There were a couple of solutions that I could not parse without the setter’s explanations, which was not so much the fault of the clues as a result of my lack of the requisite GK.

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Quick Cryptic 30 by Maskarade

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This is the thirtieth 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.

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Guardian 29,523 – Tramp

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A good mixture of clues, with some easy ones to get things started and a few that took a bit of working out. Thanks to Tramp for the entertaining challenge. Best wishes to … Read more >>