Never knowingly undersolved
Another very entertaining puzzle from Virgilius. No theme that I could see, unless it’s very subtle or I’m very slow today. Either is equally possible. Across 1 SECOND INCOM(e),MAN,D 9 (GOOD LINER)* – … Read more >>
In my mind, while solving this puzzle, I was thinking that this preamble would say how easy this crossword was, then I came across a word I didn’t know, but was able … Read more >>
I felt slightly short-changed by this puzzle but that’s probably just because of the grid! Hardly seemed worth going for the full 15×15 with only 3 white squares in the left and right … Read more >>
Solving time: 20’ The recent setters table on this site has had me wondering about the Ximenean vs. Libertarian classification – Rufus has been tagged as the latter. This puzzle has convinced me: … Read more >>
This was the least challenging Genius for a while, but it was an enjoyable solve, nonetheless. Once you solved the across clues, you were left with a fairly straightforward anagram, and the down … Read more >>
Solving time: pretty quickly except for one clue I went through this at a pretty good clip but I’m still befuddled by the wordplay for 5D (CARGOSHIP) : I suspect I’ve completely missed … Read more >>
NUDDY at 12 across brought to mind the lines from Ian Dury’s ‘Reasons to be Cheerful – Part 3: “Something nice to study, phoning up a buddy, being in my nuddy”. The song, … Read more >>
This seemed like a harder-than-usual effort from Phi, although no less entertaining for that. It got me wondering about the Saturday slot of the Indie puzzle though: does a setter who usually sets … Read more >>
Solving time: 8:15 An easier puzzle than usual from Paul, with no 10ac that I could see. Beginners’ tips: ‘criminal’ = FENCE, ‘fairy’ = PERI, ‘essay’ = TRY, ‘kiss’ = X. * = … Read more >>
A satisfying and well-worked crossword although there are a couple I’m looking for further explanation on. Very unusually for me I spotted a nina in the unchecked letters on the middle column and … Read more >>
Solving time: c. 80 mins A fairly gentle puzzle this one – thematic clues just lead to phrases of words associated with the school subjects mentioned. Enumerations for these indicated which phrases had … Read more >>
Solving time: 35’ More than one instance in which clear wordplay led to a new word (THALLI, SINICISM, CHOTA, OGIVES, ADENITIS) or a familiar word had me reverse engineering the wordplay (DIE HAPPY). … Read more >>
A little trickier this week, with some elaborate wordplay. Solving time: 30 mins Quixote’s puzzles are very accessible. As they appear in a weekend edition with a week to work it out, they … Read more >>
The theme of this puzzle was football teams (indicated by “side” in definitions) or, more particularly, the names that appear as parts of names of teams. e.g. United, City, Athletic. However, there was … Read more >>
Solving Time: 14 minutes I picked this up while munching on my Wheatybangs and thoroughly enjoyed it. Orlando is, one of the setters on the Graun that is taken for granted; his puzzles contain … Read more >>