Financial Times 15132 by ALBERICH

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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

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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

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(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 >>

Guardian 26,773 / Chifonie

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I’m in rather grumpy mode this morning: I’m in the minority here, I think, in that I actually pay for the paper – and hence the crossword – and so it was annoying, … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1347

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For me, one aspect of a good clue is when I struggle to solve it and then wonder why afterwards because it seems so obvious and there was no shortage of such occurrences … Read more >>