Posted by Agentzero on February 9th, 2010
As usual, Armonie’s clues are impeccably written: clean and concise, with smooth surface readings. I found myself wishing, though, for a surprise or two. A few too many of these seemed to be often-clued words, with breakdowns we have seen before, e.g., AD + MIRE, S + TENCH, C + ARIES. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on February 9th, 2010
Another well crafted puzzle themed on P, which I fortuitously happened to cotton on from the very beginning. As usual, The Master led us all on a fun chase … nothing too convoluted in a fair puzzle. Learned two new words which I do not think I will ever see or use again. My favourite clue must be 10 Across.
Posted in Guardian | 4 Comments »
Posted by NealH on February 8th, 2010
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on February 8th, 2010
Traditional Monday fare from Rufus here, with the usual generous smattering of cryptic definitions. I don’t remember seeing this grid before, with four consecutive three-letter answers in the downs.
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by jetdoc on February 7th, 2010
Better late than never, I hope. I was relieved finally to retrieve my solved copy of this from the recycling bin, as I did not want to find time for re-solving it before doing the blog. The clues are fairly straightforward and — as always — absolutely sound, but I needed my dictionary to confirm the existence of quite a few words. I think the best Azeds are the ones where we learn new words, and this was definitely in that class.
Posted in Azed | 4 Comments »
Posted by The Trafites on February 7th, 2010
Lorraine: Pretty straight forward this week, brain back to normal after the flu.
Posted in Everyman | 1 Comment »
Posted by rightback on February 6th, 2010
Solving time: 11 mins
Overall, much more accurately-clued than Araucaria’s Saturday crossword two weeks previously. In fact his puzzles vary so much in style from week to week that sometimes I wonder if those published are selected fairly randomly from a portfolio which contains some crosswords he wrote a long time ago. Difficulty-wise it was probably easier than average for this setter.
Posted in Guardian | 11 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on February 6th, 2010
It’s been the pantomime season and so here was a topical puzzle from Charybdis, with a neat little twist at the end. Some of the clues were rather tricky, even by EV standards, due to some obscure word meanings but there were sufficient starter clues to enable steady progress to be made.
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | No Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on February 5th, 2010
Inquisitor puzzles must be subject to the same kind of rule as umbrellas – if I fail to notice that it’s my turn to blog and do them in a hurry, they turn out to be really difficult. This time I did notice and tackled this puzzle on the day of publication. Result: it took about 60 minutes, with only 8 looks at Chambers for me – I can imagine less experienced solvers needing more, but about a dozen looks would probably be enough.
Posted in Inquisitor | 9 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on February 5th, 2010
A mixed week for me. I proudly managed all but a handful quite quickly without opening a dictionary, stumbled on a couple more, then failed on 4dn having inexplicably written in HORNPIPE at 4ac. More care is clearly needed in future.
Posted in Beelzebub | 1 Comment »
Posted by shuchi on February 5th, 2010
Plenty of anagrams made this an easy ride.
I have questions at one or two places, indicated along with the answers to clues.
Posted in FT | 10 Comments »
Posted by John on February 5th, 2010
The usual good product from Phi. Several enormous anagrams — he must have been out with his Scrabble tiles. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on February 4th, 2010
Bradman seems to be cropping up quite regularly in the Thursday slot of late, which is fortunate for me from a blogworthiness standpoint. 14A features a potentially new clue type (the subjective &lit), and I’m far from confident of having cracked 16A correctly.
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on February 4th, 2010
A delightful puzzle from Orlando, which shouldn’t have caused too many problems on the bus or train and may have elicited curious looks from fellow-passengers at the smiles and ‘ahas’ along the way. Faultless cluing and some great surfaces – I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Posted in Guardian | 33 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on February 4th, 2010
Another challenging-but-fun weekend puzzle from Anax, which kept me occupied for some time, and briefly had me wondering if I was going to manage it. In the end everything came together nicely of course. No obvious theme or Nina that I can see, but I’m sure I’ll be corrected quickly enough if there is one.
Posted in Independent | 12 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on February 4th, 2010
It seems to be nearly a year since I blogged a Morph, and I do remember struggling with that one. This seemed a bit easier, though still pretty challenging of course, so maybe I’m getting the hang of things!
Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on February 4th, 2010
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on February 4th, 2010
Monday Prize Crossword on 25 January 2010
Once again, Dante charms us with his smooth and slick surfaces for a gentle introduction to another FT week. Some of his cryptic definitions are priceless
Posted in FT | 5 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on February 4th, 2010
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 23
Here’s a themed puzzle (lots of iron and irons) with a theme that there’s nothing to figure out about. And a theme that is well exploited especially in the most admirable 25A. Okay, it does not have a great surface but it is still very clever. I also like 14D but have reservations about 23A.
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ali on February 3rd, 2010
I found this a bit tougher than the average Dac. There are quite a few single word answers of 10 or more characters and these often seem to slow me down. Lovely clueing as always though.
Posted in Independent | 12 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on February 3rd, 2010
I’m sorry to say that I found this puzzle rather uninspiring, though that may just be me. Some of the surfaces seemed contrived, or made little sense, and the nature of the wordplay meant that there were no enjoyable PDMs. In fact I was reminded of the comments I made in the first paragraph of my post on November 18th (#13,237). Having said that, I rather liked 6dn.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on February 3rd, 2010
An enjoyable puzzle from Araucaria today that was of the “just right” level of difficulty for me in a daily puzzle, and with not too many extreme liberties taken. The theme is words (highlighted below) that make a phrase when preceded by the word at 12 across, clued as “after 12″
Posted in Guardian | 38 Comments »
Posted by Agentzero on February 2nd, 2010
One clue I can’t quite figure out (5 down); I’m sure someone will help. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on February 2nd, 2010
Very enjoyable puzzle from Radian, which I found somewhat easier than usual from this setter. Solving time, 20 mins. Nina referred to at end.
Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »
