Never knowingly undersolved
As older readers will know, we’ve had a couple of evening meetings at London pubs for contributors to and readers of this blog, Times for the Times and Tony Sever’s RTC3. Both times, we’ve also … Read more >>
My favourite clues combine Rufus’s trademark cryptic definitions with wordplay, so as to keep you guessing for longer – 5 and 11 across require unravelling, whereas 17 across couldn’t be anything else. ACROSS: … Read more >>
Across 9 (+M)OBS,TER(-M) – an “obsolete expression” would be an OBS TERM. Move the back (M) to the front to get MOBSTER. 10 TO(Y for P)SHOP – I initally thought the fashion retailer … Read more >>
… and two erections that were not “up” – giving the lie to my pronouncement a few weeks ago that “erection” often means “up” in the Eye puzzle. Some good examples in here … Read more >>
Nice to be welcomed by a fairly straightforward puzzle to ease myself back into cryptic solving – having been on a diet of Les Mots Croises for the past couple of weeks. Scotland … Read more >>
Solving time: 10:16 A really good puzzle this week and much more accurate than normal for the Guardian, with some very elegant clues and clever definitions. Should have been faster but for ‘phenomenal’ … Read more >>
Solving time: ages! The only previous Kruger puzzle I remember was about No. 6 in the Inquisitor series, based on the Offa’s Dyke footpath and associated places – one that I found pretty … Read more >>
Tough: Solving time: 34 mins * = anag < = reversed ACROSS 1 DE (BRIe) EF Feed< 5 POL(IT)ICe 9 FR (l)ITTERED Excellent 10 Oliver TWIST Ditto 12 BOS (TO)NIAN 25 LEV (IATH) … Read more >>
Not the easiest puzzle to return to from France. Puck and Paul must have gone to the same school of cryptic wizardry if their senses of humor are anything to go by. The … Read more >>
Across 1 PIP in BLOWE(r) 5 TOLD,DO – not a phrase I’d ever come across before but not a tricky one to get from the wordplay. 9 (TELE(-v)ISED)* 10 SILVER – SLIVER with … Read more >>
My first Sleuth puzzle but I’ve solved a few by the same setter as Hypnos in the Independent. This was a reasonably gentle solve with some nice touches here and there. One query … Read more >>
The Beelzebub puzzle, published in the magazine section of the Independent on Sunday, is currently set by two setters: Phi does three a month and Columba does one. Columba used to be a … Read more >>
The usual excellent offering by Quixote. Solving time: 20 mins * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 COUSCOUS Cousin “less in” “repeatedly” “On account of” seems to be a link, which is … Read more >>
Apologies for late posting. I’ve been off work, but looking after my 11-month old niece who has asthma and chicken-pox, which didn’t seem to leave much time for blogging – now I remember … Read more >>
One for the orologists today, as the eight clues that lack definition (denoted with an asterisk below) are all mountains. I had to take a guess at 24D to finish the grid – … Read more >>