Found this very tough all the way through, but with plenty to enjoy – my favourite was 9dn. Thanks, Crucible.
Independent 9059 – Radian
We found this a tricky solve today, with some very crafty misdirections, and one or two solutions that needed a bit of research to check. However, the wordplay was very fair when we’d … Read more >>
Financial Times 15072 Dante
(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.) Thanks to Dante for the usual … Read more >>
Financial Times 15072 with Picture Quiz
(Please post comments on ONLY the picture quiz hereinbelow. To post comments on the crossword puzzle, please click here.) Thanks to Dante for the usual staple of anagrams, double and cryptic definitions (and … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations No 1195 – Skyfall by Chalicea
Thanks to Gaufrid for stepping in!
I have switched phones and had apparently turned off email updates, alarms, and notifications (although not the messages every five minutes suggesting I buy extras)!
Appropriately, the phone I’m (mis)using is the new Bond phone. There’s obviously the possibility of a Bond reference in the title, especially when there’s a Bond film coming out soon (actually, it’s out now), but is it actually Bond-related?
Guardian Quiptic 832/Pan
Pan always gives us a sound Quiptic, and that was the case this morning. One or two trickier ones, and a not entirely helpful grid for an entry-level puzzle, but it was all … Read more >>
Guardian 26,712 – Rufus
A very quick solve for me today, with the exception of 4d, which held me up at the end. Fewer cryptic definitions than usual, I think, which helps; the ones we do have … Read more >>
Cyclops 558: Body talk
It’s Friday and I am trying to get this finished and scheduled in preparation for the York Sloggers & Betters weekend, so I don’t miss the Sunday session like I did last year. … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1,339 by Raich
It’s always nice to draw a puzzle from our friend and Fifteensquared alumnus Raich. Having had to blog an Anax on the same weekend, it was a relief that this perhaps wasn’t the … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1337
This one was over rather quickly but I cannot explain why, it’s not as if there are no obscure words or complex wordplay in it. Perhaps I was just on song because around … Read more >>
Azed 2263 — ‘Eightsome reels’
This is something Azed only occasionally does, to have one of his specials on a non-clue-setting-competition day. I don’t know how many solvers there are who do the n-c-s-c puzzles but not the c-s-c ones, … Read more >>
Independent 9,051 by Anax (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 17/10/15)
It’s always a pleasure to open the paper and see Anax’s name at the top of the puzzle. That’s no less true on blogging day, of course, though you do fear you might … Read more >>
Guardian Prize 26705 by Paul
This is the second tricky prize puzzle from Paul I have blogged recently. I think his weekend puzzles are getting harder. Not so many laughs as some of his puzzles but lots to enjoy regardless. Thanks Paul.