Posted by rightback on 22nd November 2008
Solving time: 13:40
An enjoyable puzzle from Araucaria, with a couple of strange clues thrown in. Several clues refer to the Suffragette movement.
Posted in Guardian | 6 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 21st November 2008
It’s not often that I think that Nimrod isn’t the hardest weekday puzzle, but I really struggled with this one! I only solved 3 clues on my first pass and it took me far too long to get some of the longer down answers which help open up the grid. A nice challenge to end the week nonetheless, and there are some truly outstanding and entertaining clues in here.
Posted in Independent | 14 Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 21st November 2008
Quite easy for a friday, I thought. Straightforward and well constructed, with a lot of anagrams.
Posted in Guardian | 40 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 21st November 2008
A rare treat: Virgilius on a Saturday. About the same level of difficulty as we’ve come to expect from Virgilius and a theme of course: this time, it’s centred around two well-known phrases at 3/28 and 1/7. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 21st November 2008
LODA is a regular contributer to the Inquisitor series and his (?) puzzles cover a wide range of subjects. This one took us into deepest Peckham in London. We were told that the wordplay in each of the fifty five clues would lead to the answer plus an additional letter. Of the fifty five clues, eighteen had no definition and the extra letters in these spelt out the theme of the puzzle. The remaining thirty seven clues led to six thematic names. Finally we were told that two additional thematic names had to be highlighted in the grid.
Posted in Inquisitor | 2 Comments »
Posted by Dave Hennings on 21st November 2008
Being a natural pessimist, I had visions that my first blog would end up being for a puzzle by Dimitry, Kea or Oxymoron (Schadenfreude’s EV pseudonym), so seeing it was by Syd Lexis was a bit of a relief. The carte blanche grid did sow some seeds of doubt, but at least there were no missing/extra letters/words or misprints to worry about; if nothing else that would make the blog straightforward and there would be no fancy colouring, well not much as it turned out.
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | No Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 21st November 2008
Another early upload online for the puzzle (thanks Messrs Editor/Webmaster) allows me the opportunity to blog promptly again this week. Nothing particularly byzantine here – other than my lack of familiarity with Mel Torme – and the theme is readily apparent, with only the Northern Territory and Tasmania missing a name-check.
Posted in FT | 10 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 20th November 2008
This was tough as Nimrod usually is, but I got there in the end. There is a Nina (hidden message) which helped me from reasonably early on – I refer to it after the clue explanations. Solving time: 40 mins, one or two I do not fully understand but I verified the answers on the Indy site.
Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 20th November 2008
I very much enjoyed this puzzle and personally didn’t find it nearly as difficult as the last couple of days. There are several references to the United States (7a, 26a, 1d, 3d, 18d) in addition to the tricky 15a, 17a. Update: I meant to add that there are many marvellous surface readings in these clues – worth taking a little time over.
Posted in Guardian | 41 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 20th November 2008
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Octofem on 20th November 2008
Nothing very testing in this morning’s puzzle, apart from a few slang terms which may not be known to all.
Much easier than last Thursday’s task.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 20th November 2008
From Monday Prize Crossword on 10th November 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 20th November 2008
This Cincinnus puzzle struck me as distinctly more difficult than most of his. The top-right corner especially took me some time to complete. And it has its complement of splendid Cincinnic clues (10A, 25A, 3D).
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by John on 19th November 2008
As always with Dac, clue after clue hits the button. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 5 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 19th November 2008
Yes, it’s me again though this time back to my scheduled Wednesday spot.
Posted in FT | 8 Comments »
Posted by diagacht on 19th November 2008
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | DORIS DAY: DOR (as in d’or, of gold, golden) + IS (lives) + DAY (period); actress in Calamity Jane film of 1953 |
| 5 | SHUCKS: HUCK in SS |
| 9 | NUNEATON: NUN EAT ON. Town nine miles north of Coventryadcast) + G |
| 10 | ELAPSE: anagram of ASLEEP |
| 12,6 | BLACK HILLS: LACK in BH + ILLS. In Dakota./td> |
| 13 | ADAM SMITH: A DAM (mother) + SMITH (to forge); the chap who replaced Elgar on the new £20 note |
| 14 | SLASH-AND-BURN: SLASH (oblique) + anagram of UN BRAND |
| 18 | VAINGLORIOUS: anagram of LOG IN in VARIOUS |
| 21 | LOCH LOCHY: LOCH (water) + LOCH (water, making waters) + Y (your first) |
| 24 | THIEVE: anagram of HIT + EVE |
| 25 | VALUABLE: LAV (reversed) + anagram of A BLUE |
| 26 | DAKOTA: Referring to the war plane and to north and south Dakota |
| 27,23 | DEADWOOD STAGE: DEADWOOD (useless) + STAGE. Refers again to Calamity Jane |
| Down | |
| 1 | DANUBE: A NUB in DE (of French) |
| 2 | RUNWAY: RUNaWAY without the central ‘a’ |
| 3 | SPARK PLUG: SPARK (set off) + PLUG (publicity) |
| 4 | A WOMANS TOUCH: A song from Calamity Jane |
| 7 | CAPSICUM: CAP (cover) + SIC (that’s right) + UM (hesitation) |
| 8 | SEETHING: SEE THING |
| 11 | CALAMITY JANE: (AMITY (friendship) + JA) in CALNE (Wiltshire town) |
| 15 | DRUG SQUAD: D + RUGS + QUAD (kind of bike) |
| 16 | OVULATED: anagram of LOVAT DUE |
| 17 | MISCLICK: M (leader of mouse) + IS + CLICK (kind of beetle) |
| 19 | BAMBOO: I think this is BAMBOOzle (as in begin to cheat) with BAMBOO being a grass and BAMBOO curtain being the so called political barrier of Chinese communism |
| 20 | BEHEAD: HE in BEAD |
| 22 | LOVAT: LO (see, behold) + VAT |
Posted in Guardian | 18 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 18th November 2008
Rishi is having problems with his computer and has asked me to cover for him. Rather like Friday’s puzzle, this was a mixed bag of the very easy and the rather more obscure, particularly 26d for which I required Wikipedia to confirm. The clue for 9a appears to be deficient.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by neildubya on 18th November 2008
A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with some great clues and a mini-theme. Two or three potentially tricky words (5, 11 and 25) but I thought these were all fairly clued and very gettable from the wordplay. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 13 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 18th November 2008
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in Guardian | 31 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 17th November 2008
Rufus gets a Monday off to make way for a reasonably easy offering from Arachne. There are a couple of clues where I’m not sure I’ve got the explanation right, and one (27ac) that I don’t get at all. I’m hoping commenters will set me straight.
Posted in Guardian | 41 Comments »
Posted by bridgesong on 16th November 2008
A straightforward puzzle this week, with a fair proportion of unfamiliar words. Nevertheless, it’s worth making the point that Azed puzzles can in fact be easier to solve than a daily cryptic, as long as you are prepared to use Chambers to verify your guesses. The wordplay, although often ingenious, is scrupulously fair, and the generous checking is a great help.
Posted in Azed | No Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 15th November 2008
This is obviously more relevant for readers of another blog, but if you have friends in need of help with broadsheet dailies, it does a good job for these puzzles in general as well as for the Times in particular. More about it from me in a review on its Amazon UK page.
Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
Posted by rightback on 15th November 2008
Solving time: 7:44
An amusing offering from Paul, with a theme: the key clue is the one to 13dn/20ac, which yields “ASK A STUPID QUESTION”. The definitions to 10 other clues are given as “13 20 …?”, hinting at the response “get a stupid answer”, and these 10 answers (given in bold below) are all synonyms for a stupid person, ranging from the jovial ‘dipstick’ to the less polite ‘pillock’. I thought this was probably easier than usual for a Paul puzzle.
Posted in Guardian | 5 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 14th November 2008
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
