Financial Times 12,848 – Cincinnus
From FT Saturday Prize Puzzle on 16 August 2008 dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,849 – Dante
From Monday Prize Crossword 18 August 2008 dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram … Read more >>
FT 12,857/Dogberry
A liberal smattering of general knowledge items (operas, chess players, Roman poets), of the type that one is either likely to know readily or have never heard of. I started off at a … Read more >>
Guardian 24,478 (Quantum)
Across 1 IGNITION KEY: & Lit 9 OCTOBER: O + (TO BE in CR) 10 ERASURE: ERA + anagram of USER 11 WHIRLWIND: HIRL (sounds like ‘hurl’) in W-WIND 12 SISAL: anagram of … Read more >>
Independent 6822/Dac
The usual excellent crossword from Dac, hard enough (it took a while to get started), but not too hard. Everything, apart from one answer, went in slowly but regularly. Across 1 MALAGA — … Read more >>
Independent 6,821/Virgilius – Numbers game
This was a belter of a puzzle, with every clue containing the word ‘number’. The fact that this word can be interepreted in, ahem, a number of different ways (quantity, music, anaesthetic, etc.), … Read more >>
Guardian 24,477 – Araucaria
A bit later than normal today sorry, I had noticed I was meant to be solving on Tuesday but had internalised this as ‘the second day of the week’, which the Bank Holiday … Read more >>
Financial Times 12856 / Quark
I completed left top corner first and then the right top. At the end of the allotted time, some gaps existed in the left bottom corner (22a, 29a, 18d). 26d was also yet … Read more >>
Guardian 24,469 (Sat 16 Aug)/Taupi – Leave of absence
Solving time: Forgot to write down, but about 8 minutes I think This is my first blog for a few weeks, so thank you very much to bridgesong and Uncle Yap who have … Read more >>
Independent 6820 by Hypnos
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed I found this very difficult, particularly the bottom right hand corner. There were two or three I didn’t understand and a few obscure words (tosh, lig) that I hadn’t come … Read more >>
Guardian 24,476/Rufus
A straightforward Rufus for Bank Holiday Monday. A couple of nice cryptic definitions, and a couple more I’m not so keen on. Key: dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition * = … Read more >>
Azed 1890 – Placeholder
I’ll be back a bit later today with the blog on this puzzle.
FINANCIAL TIMES 12,853 by VIKING
It’s now well past 7pm and the scheduled blogger hasn’t put in an appearance so here is a substitute. As this has been prepared in some haste there are not many comments. . … Read more >>
Independent 6,818/Phi
A mercifully gentle end to a tough week. There were one or two answers I wasn’t immediately sure about, but solid clueing as always from Phi. Across 1 SACK – Straight DD to … Read more >>
Independent 6813/Nimrod
I somehow managed to finish this, despite the half dozen or so clues that I filled in without really knowing why. Offers of enlightenment gratefully received. Across 1/4 IN POLE POSITION – I … Read more >>