Never knowingly undersolved
Many clues with the parts of speech and/or meanings in the wordplay and surface surprisingly different which made this quite an enjoyable puzzle. Quite a few single letter abbrevs as well — not … Read more >>
Solving time 16:22 Another feast of libertarianism from Paul, but I thought the long answer starting at 17 was just brilliant. Some rather whimsical answers too today – 21D had me scratching my … Read more >>
Rather harder than usual for Dac, I thought, but as usual it’s full of very nice clues. Across 1 TOSH – 2 mngs, not helped by the fact that the mate meaning is … Read more >>
Across 1 SECOND THOUGHTS: SECOND (back) THOUGHTS (ideas) 9 ERSATZ: anagram of RATES + Z (last letter) 10 BANDSMAN: &Lit 13 ARCANE: CAN in anagram of ERA 15 SHED: double definition 16 CROUTON: … Read more >>
* = anag, < = reversed, () = dropped letter A good mixture of clues, with some quite tough ones (like 8 across) and some fairly easy. I quite enjoyed it, but it … Read more >>
Across 1 TESTAMENT: the male organ is presumably STAMEN but I can’t get offensive from TET 9 THE BEGGARS OPERA: anagram of A BERG’S GREAT HOPE 10 ROUT: gROUT firing German (g) 14 … Read more >>
Solving time: 10 mins, one missing (13dn), one wrong (18ac) I love rhyming slang but was caught out today by one I didn’t know. 18ac is possibly my favourite clue so far this … Read more >>
Solved in three sittings totalling over 75 minutes. Quite a tough puzzle by Azed’s standards with a grid that didn’t offer a great deal of help from one section to another. I solved the … Read more >>
I ended up feeling slightly deflated by this puzzle. There were a couple of clues which I really liked, and several that I thought were a bit pedestrian. Maybe it was me that … Read more >>
Across 1 CONSCRIPTS: CON (study) + SCRIPTS 7 SEAN: SEdAN being heartless 10 DOLLS HOUSE: anagram of HULL DOES SO 11 CARPAL: CARP + ALl (almost all) 12 TWITCHER: WITCH in TER 13 … Read more >>
Nothing very controversial I think – the usual excellent crossword from Phi. Across 1 (a)UNTY PIC AL(l) 6 ONC(U [=for all to see])E 9 EV(OK)E 10 ARM STRONG. I think this is it: … Read more >>
A puzzle of two halves for me; the Downs were all pretty easy but the Acrosses less so. All good fun though. No Nina or theme that I can see but I might … Read more >>
Solving time: no recorded – let’s call it 90 minutes With lots of articles in the papers, it didn’t take much effort to guess a possible theme here – the spare letters message … Read more >>
Across 1 JETSAM: SAM (American) after JET 8 ITCHIER: anagram of RICH TEa + I; you need to replace the “a” with an “i” (one for a) 9 HACKSAW: HACK (reporter) + SAW … Read more >>
Some very good and varied material here – quick progress early on, but slow to finish. Solving time: 28 mins * = anagram ACROSS 7/19 CAPE FEAR (A preface)* 8 (St)ALL (THE SAME) … Read more >>