Never knowingly undersolved
A pretty straightforward Monday solve (10 mins-ish), tightly clued and accessible as ever, with quite a few anagrams and lots of cryptic definitions – some very good, others a tad obvious. About half the answers came … Read more >>
Not too taxing and therefore perfect for a Sunday morning, especially if Saturday night went on too long and you’re in desperate need of a 23A or similar restorative. Across 8 AIR<,LAND in … Read more >>
Sorry for the delay in getting this blog ready, but I struggled with this puzzle, because I couldn’t work out the device required to fill the grid. As usual when I seek inspiration, … Read more >>
Solving time: 7:16 I’m not sure I’ve ever solved an Araucaria puzzle faster than this. ‘Collie’ was my first solve, followed (via a look at 27ac) by ‘flour’ and then somehow an inspired … Read more >>
An enjoyable puzzle and just about the right degree of difficulty for a Friday, I felt. A pretty eclectic spectrum of clues, including everything from a couple of pre-historic chestnuts (e.g. the ETON/NOTE … Read more >>
When I swapped to Friday this week I expected a nice Phi puzzle, instead I got Nimrod! A little more difficult than Phi for me with some clues still a mystery. However, much … Read more >>
My blog day falling conveniently on a day off, I settled down at 8.30 to get the crossword out of the way,but it was not to be. Several hours of partner stranded by tube … Read more >>
Apologies for this being a day late. I had to go to a customer site yesterday and didn’t get back till 8pm, when I found that my ADSL connection was still down. I … Read more >>
Solving time 11:40 Here’s the explanation for the gentle ribbing about “strange characters turning up on Saturday” in the comments on last week’s Virgilius puzzle. For those who don’t know, Eimi is Indie … Read more >>
Solving time: 26 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 CU POL(e) A 4 S CRAM S The athlete Steve Cram 11 PA THAN(e) 12 ERLANGEN (Greenlan)* D = Germany German university city. 16 … Read more >>
Monk is among the toughest setters, with some very original treatments, and very rigorous logic in the clues. Usually his puzzles in the Indy are themed, but I cannot see one here. (Later … Read more >>
Some nice well-disguised wordplay here – especially wrt use of head and tail letters – while preserving good surfaces. Two identical nippy clues here which are well-handled. Across 1 DAWDLER – (Edward, L)*: … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of June 9, 2007 Across 1. PAWNSHOP – PA*(SHOWN)P. I had to look up “uncle” in a dictionary to learn that it has a slang meaning of … Read more >>
A fair and satisfying crossword but I’m still missing an explanation (25) which always niggles! No theme as far as I can see. Across 1 RANSOM – RANSOM(E) refers to Arthur Ransome, famous … Read more >>
Good fun, and reasonably easy although 15A and 4D held me up a bit for reasons explained below. I didn’t realise the FT had so many setters on their team; as well as … Read more >>