Never knowingly undersolved
From the New Year we will start to cover the advanced cryptic puzzles that appear on a Saturday in the Independent Weekend Magazine. These puzzles are edited by Mike Laws and are generally … Read more >>
Another amazing tour de force by Virgilius, whose weekly Indy puzzles usually have a theme. This time (1) all the sixteen perimeter cells contain the letter F (2) there are seven rows and seven … Read more >>
I thought that this puzzle was quite tough for a Tuesday morning, or maybe my brain is starting to wind down for the festive season. As usual. Paul demonstrated some clever wordplay, but … Read more >>
Virtually every clue is holiday related (xmas, parties, trees, pantos, carols…). I probably missed an allusion or two being of the other faith. I think this is the first of the Xmas-related themes … Read more >>
I really enjoyed this. Quite tricky in parts, with some subtle and genuinely inventive wordplay. I got one wrong (18D), confirmed one on the Interweb and filled in a couple without fully understanding … Read more >>
I did most of this on the tube, without Chambers, which is an interesting exercise – you have to make quite a few educated guesses and then corroborate them via the dictionary later … Read more >>
One of these days I’m going to miss a theme in an Everyman. I’ve stared at this one but no joy. Though I always enjoy solving Everyman – which typically takes about 1/2h … Read more >>
Like the last Scorpion puzzle a few weeks ago I found this very challenging but very enjoyable. I wish I could put my finger on exactly what made it difficult for me as … Read more >>
Solving time 21:35 when last answer (K) was looked up. I think this is the first “alphajig” since we started the blog. They’re an old favourite of mine – before I started doing … Read more >>
When I solve a clue and think I’m certain I won’t have to go back to verify it, I tick the clue number in the paper. This is usually the case if I … Read more >>
Solving time: 24 minutes If there were to be awards for consistent setting, I am sure Phi would in with a shout of the award. His puzzles are always entertaining and are just about … Read more >>
In keeping with Orlando’s divided personality, perhaps, there seemed to be an easy half and a difficult half to this puzzle – not that I’m assigning a specific gender to either! I got … Read more >>
Solving time – about 45 mins. This was a real brute of a puzzle from Araucaria. I struggled all the way with it, but there were some obscure words and a couple of … Read more >>
… unless you need to write up a blog entry, in which case you can often spot extra points while writing up these notes. it took me quite a while to identify the … Read more >>
Quality stuff. I can only repeat something a fellow blogger said about Dac, that aspiring setters should study his clues and learn from them. His puzzles aren’t particularly tough and they don’t have … Read more >>