Posted by neildubya on 22nd August 2008
I somehow managed to finish this, despite the half dozen or so clues that I filled in without really knowing why. Offers of enlightenment gratefully received. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 17 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 22nd August 2008
I don’t much like this grid, with its four almost-isolated corners. Luckily there were enough easyish clues in each corner to get me going, though the SE corner held me up for a while. Some niggles on a couple of clues, but quite fun overall, with some amusing surface readings.
Posted in Guardian | 13 Comments »
Posted by Hihoba on 22nd August 2008
Good stuff from Schadenfreude. Educational too! I spotted BARTHOLOMEW and hence the theme for the “complete set” early which made it fairly simple to fill in the most of the lights. The exception was 19D which I didn’t solve until I found out who the “loser” was. The rest of the puzzle was pretty tricky. It made me read the Bible carefully, and not many things cause that nowadays!
Posted in Inquisitor | 4 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 21st August 2008
This was very tough indeed. I found the NW quadrant absolutely fiendish, but got there in the end. Solving time, 67 minutes. As in previous puzzles by Tees, this draws on very wide and sometimes unusual cultural references.
Posted in Independent | 16 Comments »
Posted by Octofem on 21st August 2008
I have to say I found this a boring puzzle with some clues so obvious that I yawned. 6d made me think for
a while, and 13a held me up until I remembered that setters do love cricket!
ACROSS
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 21st August 2008
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 21st August 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in Guardian | 10 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 21st August 2008
Here’s a Cinephile puzzle with a non-cryptic theme – synonyms of “crazy”. While it has a few fine clues (I like 12A, 14A and 27A), it also has a one that I do not understand (16D) and two that I think are rather poor (17A and 27D).
Posted in FT | 4 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 21st August 2008
From Monday Prize Crossword – 11 August 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by neildubya on 20th August 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | BE in (ANIMAL)* – LIMA BEAN. |
| 10 | MIDDLE-AGE SPREAD – I can’t decide if this is a cryptic definition or if there’s some aspect of the wordplay that I’m missing because I can’t work out what “long before that” might mean. |
| 11 | OZ in ALE,LIME (all reversed) – EMILE ZOLA was the first French writer to spring to mind, which was then confirmed by “Australia” (OZ) in the wordplay. |
| 12 | COMBS – I used Reveal to confirm this as I can’t find COMBS for “old-fashioned underwear” in either of the dictionaries I have access to. I expect it’s in the Big C. |
| 13 | PHRASE – sounds like “frays”. |
| 15 | EP(I)TOME |
| 19 | BEET,ON – a reference to Mrs Beeton, author of the Book of Household Management. |
| 21 | hidden in “chAP PLEasure” – I liked “a small portion will do” as the indicator. |
| 26 | N,(MEASLES)* – I have to say that it surprised me that NAMELESS could mean “too horrific to be described”. Seems like an odd meaning for such an innocuous word. |
| Down | |
| 1 | L,UMBER |
| 2 | MIDNIGHT EXPRESS – the film directed by Alan Parker. “Sleeper” is a reference to sleeper trains, of which the midnight express might be one. |
| 6 | IMP,ACTIVE |
| 7 | T in (SOME COAL)*,(MOVE IT)* – STEAM LOCOMOTIVE. Cleverly done; I guess this must be an &lit as there isn’t a direct definition in the clue. |
| 8 | OD-[d] in (ITEMS)* – MODISTES was new to me but not too tricky to get from the wordplay. |
| 9 | DEB,AT,E – “treat” can mean to negotiate with someone to settle a dispute so I guess that could be the same as DEBATE? |
| 14 | GAME,M in ANON |
| 16 | SAS in (TRIED)* – DISASTER. |
| 19 | BUSH TEA[-m] |
| 20 | AMI,[-l]ENS |
| 23 | hidden in “BrowNIE CEremony”. |
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 20th August 2008
A tricky one from Araucaria in the Guardian yesterday and a similar offering from Cinephile in today’s FT. There was a gentle hint at the beginning that ‘the works are similar’ which helped to narrow down the choice of plays and having ‘a?o’ for the second word in 12a these all fell readily into place.
.
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by golgonooza on 20th August 2008
A fairly enjoyable puzzle. The wording of some of the clues seemed a little odd to me.
Posted in Guardian | 20 Comments »
Posted by John on 19th August 2008
This took ages — Morph seems to be getting very difficult nowadays. This wasn’t helped by the fact that there were some answers that appear a bit tenuous, although it’s more likely that I don’t understand them properly. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 21 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 19th August 2008
This was a difficult puzzle today, I thought, although I tend to find Araucaria’s crosswords harder than the other Guardian setters. As usual, there are some really satisfying clues here and great surface readings. There are two clues nicely linked to 10 down, but otherwise I didn’t spot a particular theme. Can someone explain 16,19?
Posted in Guardian | 22 Comments »
Posted by C G Rishikesh on 19th August 2008
Neither too easy nor too hard, this puzzle has neat clues. I must admit that I had an unusually slow start but I completed it in much less than 30 minutes. The bottom left quad was filled in first while the bottom right was delayed.
Posted in FT | 8 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 18th August 2008
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed
Some very tricky, well disguised clues today. Mostly very good, but I thought 6 down was taking things a bit too far. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 18th August 2008
I found this fairly easy going, even for a Monday. Mainly composed of a few anagrams, double-definitions and more than the usual amount of cryptic definitions, it was a nice distraction but not much to get your teeth into.
Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 18th August 2008
I don’t note solving times but maybe I ought to start as I’m pretty sure I must’ve had a Personal Best for this one. Must’ve been about 15 minutes. There was nothing here to cause a hold-up. Last clue in, 14/27 Alistair Darling, I would have got with fewer crossing letters if I’d had to and I was quite surprised to find a complete grid.
Of course, looking back on it now (the next day) I realise this was one of the easiest Eye crosswords for some time. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 6 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 17th August 2008
Solving time 43:08, Chambers used when grid about half full – but one probable wrong answer.
Posted in Azed | 3 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 16th August 2008
From Prize Crossword 24,463 – 9 August 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in Guardian | 3 Comments »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 15th August 2008
Further to the initial announcement here’s what the crossword editor says about the free service:
Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
Posted by John on 15th August 2008
Only 24 clues here, which I think is about as few as it’s reasonably possible to have in a 15-by-15 crossword where the Ximenean edict of having no answers with more unchecked than checked letters is observed. Not that this helped my time, which was over 30 minutes: some of the films were rather difficult to find. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 15th August 2008
A very entertaining crossword, with two strong interconnected themes and a very neat trick of having three famous people’s names sitting in the grid (17 21 7, 2 23 7 and 17 6), but without them being directly clued.
Posted in Guardian | 19 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 15th August 2008
A bit of a mixed bag from Mudd today. Some good clues and one or two where I am a little less than happy with the wordplay or definition. Nothing too difficult and a gentle start to the day.
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 15th August 2008
Nice puzzle from The Editor with an appropriate Nina for a puzzle that appeared the day after that amazing opening ceremony in Beijing: in the unchecked letters on the grid perimeter we see CITIUS,ALTIUS,FORTIUS (the Olympic motto meaning “faster, higher, stronger”) and OLYMPIC. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | No Comments »