Never knowingly undersolved
It’s always a delight for me to see Picaroon’s name on a puzzle and, once again, I was not disappointed. With Picaroon, we can often expect a theme – and here it became … Read more >>
I was glad when I found it was Monk today as he is one of my favourite setters. But this feeling changed as I discovered how tricky this one was. I had read all the … Read more >>
2 unclued entries to find and every clued entry with an extra letter in it’s wordplay. Then 41 squares to identify connected with the theme subtly revealed by the extra letters A new … Read more >>
A fun challenge from Gozo today, thanks to whom for serving up a real 20d ! 🙂 I got to the theme pretty quickly but then got held up by the NE quadrant, which to most others would have been quite workable. Thanks to Gaufrid for the prop up there.
The usual excellent production from Phi. My own stupidity resulted in lack of completion — I was looking for ages at 1dn — and in particular Phi has done two things of which I approve: although there are unches all round the edges he never has less than 50% checking, something that the grid makes a bit tricky; and in 12ac he has given us some wordplay. Many setters would have been quite happy with ‘Supporters of bridges’ as a cryptic definition, but not Phi, who gives us two ways into the solution, realising that there is nothing to stop you from having a clever and witty definition in a ‘straight’ clue.
Not too difficult and very enjoyable. Favourites 12ac and 29ac. Thanks Shed
I took a while to get started on this, but then everything quickly fell into place, with just a delay at the end to get the (rather unhelpfully clued, I thought) intersecting pair … Read more >>
We never know whose puzzle we will have to solve on a Thursday. Certain setters send a shiver down your spine, others raise a smile but we are rarely disappointed. Today it’s Tees’ … Read more >>
Checking back on the site, the first crossword we blogged was coutesy of Hamilton. We enjoyed it, as we enjoyed this one. A pleasant, gentle start to the day. Now off to walk the dogs.
Monday Prize Crossword / May 18, 2015
A good crossword by Crux to start off another FT week.
Prize crossword from the Weekend FT of May 16, 2015 Peto is new to me and, I believe, to this space. I understand also that he is, like me, a Brit who lives … Read more >>
The grid is a little unusual having eight words with two adjacent unchecked letters. This made solving the puzzle difficult as even a half-filled grid left long stretches of empty cells.
A quick solve for me today with Paul in benign mode. A lot of relatively easy ‘entry’ clues which meant a significant grid fill after the first pass through them. 27ac went in … Read more >>
Quixote is occupying this last Wednesday slot of the month, when Dac typically enjoys a well-earned break. I found this puzzle towards the easy end of the Quixote, and indeed Indy, spectrum. There … Read more >>
A small grid (only 11×11) and few clues (13 across and 12 down). The preamble was more lengthy: Seven unclued answers (six words and a proper name) have the same two opposing things … Read more >>