Never knowingly undersolved
Thanks to Scorpion I have a good challenge for my first blog of 2017 The puzzle is a pangram. For a while I thought it was going to be a … Read more >>
A very late appearance of this on the Indy website means the blog has been considerably delayed. It’s not giving too much away to say there was a theme of cities.
A tricky little number from Hectence to start the New Year. Apologies for the late blog, but it did take me a while to sort it all out. And I’ve also got the … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27083.
So playfair puzzles aren’t my favourite cup of tea. Fortunately, my colleague Frank Yellin doesn’t mind them and has a bunch of python code to prove it (we are both Jewish so had plenty of time on our hands this week). So he helped me no end figuring out the actual magic square — which this time had no Q rather than the more usual I/J merging (to produce 25 letters of the alphabet in a 5×5 grid).
Puzzles 1472 – 1523
Well, we have come to the start of another year (where did the last one go, it only seems like a few months since I was last writing one of these posts!). I … Read more >>
Happy New Year! There we go, I’ve used my one exclamation mark for 2017. This was an interesting, and tough, puzzle to start us off in the Sindy for 2017. Sherlock appears to … Read more >>
The preamble states: The puzzle is a tribute to two people whose names appear in the completed grid. (There is a numerical link between them.) X and two of his products are in a … Read more >>
Leading up to Saturday, March 26th in what will surely go down in history as The Year of Loss, I thought I’d lost it. We thought we’d lost it. Then we found we … Read more >>
As 2016 reaches its last day a no doubt topical puzzle from Eimi completes the Independent’s year of crosswords. I always enjoy Eimi’s crosswords – they tend to have topical clues and this … Read more >>
Normally, I try to paraphrase the essential elements of the preamble. This week, it seemed far easier to reprint it word for word! Solvers must identify and highlight the five-letter keyword from a … Read more >>
My last blog for 2016 and a pleasurable solve at that, with Bradman serving up a delectable challenge. Thanks Bradman for an apt finish to the 2016 work week.
Well, it’s Phiday again, will there be a theme? If there is, will we be able to spot it? We have missed some of Phi’s recent themes but we are very pleased that … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27081.