This Christmas puzzle employs a device that I don’t remember Azed using before. The special instructions state: “In the completed diagram, eight words in jumbled form may be seen radiating from and including the central square, which must be deduced”.
Independent on Sunday 1349 Kairos
(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.) In the main, about the right … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1349 with Picture Quiz
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) In the main, about the right level of difficulty of an IoS. Thanks to … Read more >>
AZED 2,273 Plain
I enjoyed this one very much. The dictionary got off lightly this time as I seemed to know (or at least vaguely remember) most of the words here, unusual for me. Thank you Azed.
Guardian 26,764 / Imogen
Some lovely clues here, but we found this puzzle very tough, which I imagine will be the case for many solvers. The special instructions were: Definitions in nine clues lead to solutions (one … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations No. 1205: Somehow Find a Replacement by Serpent
This is Serpent’s first EV, although I remember his IQ a few months back that was quite tricky. Here we had 12 acrosses that need modification before entry — six each of two … Read more >>
My Thanks
By now, apart from a few outlying islands, the whole globe will have seen in the New Year (or, as in my case, will have been asleep when it arrived). It is therefore … Read more >>
Guardian 26,769 – Philistine
After yesterday’s duffing-up by Enigmatist and friends, it was a bit of a relief to get this much gentler, but still enjoyable, offering from Philistine as the first puzzle of 2016. Thanks to … Read more >>
Independent 9115 / Phi
A fairly straightforward topical themed puzzle from Phi to start the year off in the manner we have come to expect. All good fun, with only one unusual word (14D), no doubt resulting … Read more >>
Inquisitor index: 2016
Puzzles 1419 – 1471
Guardian Christmas Prize Puzzle No 26,759 by Maskarade
This year’s Christmas puzzle was a double alphabetical jigsaw with a twist: half the clues lacked a definition.
Independent 9,114 / Eimrod
Here I am with my blog of the last Indy puzzle of 2015, which I imagine is a joint effort on the part of Eimi and Nimrod. New Year’s Eve seems to be … Read more >>
Financial Times 15126 by IO
In memoriam – of my solving skills?
A puzzle by Io that pays tribute to some of the prominent people who passed away in 2015, although I think my solving skills may also be on their last legs, given how bad an effort I have made at this puzzle, which was very difficult, even after I had worked out what the theme was.
Guardian Cryptic 26768 Enigmatist
(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.) Quite a tricky end to the … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 26768 with Picture Quiz
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) Quite a tricky end to the year. Spent just as long figuring out the … Read more >>