Never knowingly undersolved
Solving time: 13:16 (one mistake) Another excellent puzzle from Virgilius with a theme (7, arguably 10 answers) based on a work by one of my favourite authors. Anyone unfamiliar with the excerpt in … Read more >>
No good deed goes unpunished. I volunteered to do Tuesday’s cryptic thinking that I’ll probably get someone tractable like Shed, Quantum, etc. – but no… and we’re left with four wordplays I can’t … Read more >>
Solvers of advanced cryptics will recognise the name Obtrox as he/she has compiled a number of crosswords for the Listener, Enigmatic Variations and the Independent’s own Weekend Magazine over the past few years. … Read more >>
Typical fair Rufus fare. A couple of nice turns of phrase (e.g. 24D), one Shakespearean reference that had me checking Hamlet (22D) and a wordplay whose decoding had me going for a bit … Read more >>
Azed – A brief introduction If you regularly finish the puzzles in the “dailies” and fancy a new challenge then a barred crossword like Azed (or Beelzebub in the Independent and Mephisto in … Read more >>
Seems like the theme might have been words starting with C given the high proportion (CHERISHED, CARPETBAGGERS, CROWN, CHILE PINE, CHESS, CHRISTABEL, CONFIDENT). Quite an accessible puzzle with generally sensible surfaces (except for … Read more >>
This was really tough. Merlin has a monthly slot in the Indy. As a solver who tackles the Times Listener Crossword every week, Merlin is familiar to me in that context also as … Read more >>
A nice thematic puzzle about bones…. Across 1 VAC, ATE – A brief holiday is a vac(ation) and Ate was the Greek goddess of blind folly and delusion. 9 OTIS – “Mr Redding” … Read more >>
Solving time : 30 minutes. In many ways a typical Phi puzzle, very fair. The clues that marred this puzzle for me were a couple of cryptic definitions that I didn’t feel worked … Read more >>
Some nice touches and some tough clues here – 8ac and 18ac took some thought. This Guardian grid pattern’s not the easiest, with no first letters for more than half the words, and eight with … Read more >>
Some tricky clues – solving time 22 mins. Hope setters are not paid by clue, just 24 in the puzzle. ACROSS 5 GRIN AND BEAR IT anagram of “Britain – danger” with the … Read more >>
Something of a bruising encounter for me and I’m still licking the wounds. I find Mass puzzles very tough – enjoyable, but tough. Matters weren’t helped by getting 19A and 22a wrong and … Read more >>
Solving time – approx 12 mins. I got three of the four perimeter 15-letter entries straight away and had the top half finished in under 3 minutes, then lost a bit of momentum … Read more >>
From this weekend, we will be covering the Azed puzzles that appear in the Observer. Reviews will appear each Sunday, which is the day after the official closing date for the prize draw. … Read more >>
Independent 6272/Dac – easy but nice Solved in 5:05. Got a reasonable start with 5A and then the easy anag at 5D. Should really have had 1A first time for a sub-5 clocking, … Read more >>