Guardian Quiptic 843 Anto

I daresay, relatively speaking, I spent more time on this than most Cryptics.  Thanks to Anto.  I recall that commenters (mostly) rounded on this setter in his/her previous outings.  Déjà vu!  Definitions are … Read more >>

Azed 2274

A gentle start to the Azed year: I don’t time myself, but I think I finished this (apart from checking a couple of stragglers in Chambers) in less than half an hour. As … Read more >>

S & B London – thank you for a great event

Some setters are better than others, and some crossword gatherings are better than others.
Today’s S & B was simply fantastic for which huge thanks to, who else, John Henderson and Sue Taylor (aka dirkybee)!
As there was no announcement at Fifteensquared, I didn’t know what to expect but the journey to Kings Cross (great venue!) was worth every penny.
For those who didn’t know this event was on the agenda anyway: see beery hiker’s explanation in comment @5.

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Financial Times 15132 by ALBERICH

Happy New Year everybody!! Its good to be back after a three week hiatus since both Christmas and New Year’s fell on Fridays. We have Alberich in the house, for the first FT Friday crossword in 2016 and true to his style, he gives us a smooth, intriguing challenge that was just within reach in terms of solving, and a touch out of reach (annoyingly so) in terms of parsing! 🙂 Several clues were refreshingly new (atleast to me) and as I solved them, made me upbeat about the rest of the year to follow. And of course, thanks to Neil !!

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Independent 9121 by Phi

Everything was going fine: the usual experience with Phi, rather slow to get started then, when once afloat, making steady progress so that it all seemed easy enough. And then I came up against 5dn. Having thought for a good while I abandoned myself to every variety of aids, still without success. After about half an hour I left it and returned about three hours later, when the answer was obvious. How often this happens. Of course ‘forbidding’ wasn’t a rather dodgy indicator of the omission of something; all perfectly sound.

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Guardian Cryptic 26775 Otterden

(Please click here for this same blog but with a picture quiz added. Please do NOT post hereinbelow any comment relating to the picture quiz. Thank you.)  Found this easy enough to start … Read more >>