Never knowingly undersolved
I found this quite tough. One of those puzzles where the clues seemed obvious only after I had found the answer. Thank you Artexlen for the challenge. I will be out most of … Read more >>
Poor old Filbert has had me now three times in a row. In past blogs I have been very enthusiastic about his crosswords, They are hard going, but they always seem to have … Read more >>
Nudnix – a setter new to me. Preamble: The theme involves two events – one possibly apocryphal – that happened on two (unrelated) visits. In the first, 1dn travelled East to 20; … Read more >>
Thanks to Falcon for an enjoyable one. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Onlooker at the side of stall, extremely eager (9) BYSTANDER : BY(at the side of/next to) + STAND(a … Read more >>
It’s been three months of lockdown since we last blogged a Radian puzzle, so we looked forward to this……. … and we found it a little easier than we had expected, but no … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28197. A not too difficult offering from Qaos, with, as usual, a theme: musical instruments. There are a few borderline cases – SIREN (yes, there are various … Read more >>
Nice to see a Slormgorm this morning. A pleasant and fairly easy Monday solve. Thanks to Slormgorm! ACROSS 1. Load of drugs taken in party by guru (6) DOSAGE DO (party) by SAGE … Read more >>
One of our regular Quiptic setters with another enjoyable (but occasionally tricky) puzzle. Most of the standard clue types are here: simple block constructions, insertions, anagrams, reversals, double definitions, and combinations of these. … Read more >>
Vulcan fills his / her regular fortnightly slot with a typical Monday medley of anagrams, charades and double and cryptic definitions. Thanks for the puzzle, Vulcan. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across … Read more >>
I found this quite hard going with the longer clues proving to be quite a struggle. 1 across was particularly difficult with lots of short words, each of which had numerous possibilities. There … Read more >>
Typical Cyclopsean fare, book-ended by two references to ‘members’, neither of which are MPs…but also two uncharacteristic setting/editing slips, at 1A and 20D?
Yet another puzzle in Everyman’s distinctive style. The standard Everyman features are all here: a related pair of long entries (when I got the solution to 11a, I had a pretty good idea … Read more >>
A slightly differently shaped Azed grid this week with 11 rows and 13 columns There were few Scottish references in the puzzle although TRON got a look-in at the wordplay … Read more >>
An entertaining little tussle. Thank you Shabbo. The clues are straightforward, but nevertheless I found quite a few of them difficult. I attempted this puzzle after a good dinner and several glasses of … Read more >>
This kept me contented for the best part of an hour. In the end I had to look up the Czech river – I have never heard of this one, but I won’t … Read more >>