A tough puzzle from Brummie, with a theme that eluded me for some time. The first thematic answer I got was CLOSE, which made me think they were all cricketers. It was only when I got BLESSED that I realised that the undefined solutions are all surnames of actors, neatly divided into six acrosses and six downs. Some of the surnames are of more than one person, as confirmed by the online solution.

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I found this generally up to Bradman’s usual high standard, with some good clues, but unfortunately there appears to be one significant error (4a). I am also not too happy with the wordplay in 22a.
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A very quick solve for me on this one, but equally a very enjoyable one. I’ve been trying my hand at writing a few puzzles of my own of late and there’s so much good stuff in this puzzle from which to learn. Effortlessly neat and elegant clues with barely an ounce of fat on any of ‘em. Excellent work, Phi.

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A fairly tricky puzzle from Arachne which I’ve been intermittently struggling with all morning in between trying to get some work done. Some nice clues, but I think 4dn is very poor, and I can’t see how 19dn works. Read the rest of this entry »

A very enjoyable puzzle which I found pretty tough in places. I doubt I would have got 10 at all without Google and I’m still not sure about 4. Good fun though – my favourite clues were 26, 27, 1d and 9. Read the rest of this entry »

Jophu is another new setter to me so I didn’t know what to expect with this one. The clues were normal and, as it turned out, fairly straightforward. There were some very easy clues here with parts of the word play appearing en claire in the clue. This helped with getting quite a few entries into the grid and noticing that the checking letters didn’t help with some of the more stubborn clues. Luckily the easy, but very good, anagram at 48 and most of its checking letters suggested deleting the letters HAMLET. The unclued 28 then leapt out and baring the odd sticking point everything fell into place quite quickly. The error in the grid at 16 fooled me for a bit as I saw an unnumbered entry and missed the actual clue for a while. examining the rows above and below the central row the message turned out to be: REMOVE SHAKESPEARE CHARACTER(S) (though UNNEST could work in place of REMOVE but it wasn’t as cleverly hidden). I was greatly helped in this puzzle by an excellent book, Exit, Pursued by a Bear by Louise McConnell. This concise encyclopaedic guide to all of Shakespeare’s work lists all the characters down to non-speaking cameos. For future reference it has synopses of all the plays and lots of other information for the less literate crossword solver such as me. Oh, and it is also available at a remaindered price from the right outlet.

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An excellent puzzle from Phi as usual. The title immediately suggested something either astronomical or related to atmospheric physics. I considered rainbows and halos but eventually, after getting some letters in 44, saw the theme as stellar. The letters in 27 represent the spectral types of the main sequence stars, essentially their temperature or colour. The main sequence is the life-line of your average star. As a star ages it traces a path along this line, represented on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram as a plot against absolute brightness, or some related quantity. I studied this diagram in minute detail for my astrophysics module as part of my physics degree. I knew I could scrape a pass by answering the one question on the H-R diagram well. I did just scrape a pass too. Still, it came in handy here.

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There seems to have been a bit of confusion on the blog scheduling front, with Azed 1911 not having been covered. In the interests of completeness I’ve taken the liberty of producing this rather minimalist blog. If anyone is reading and needs further clarification, please ask.

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I’ve started to dread seeing Gordius’s name when it’s my turn to blog.  As one of the harder Guardian setters I often find his puzzles impenetrable, unlike Araucaria who I tend to regard as hard but solvable given time.

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*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

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I found this fairly easy, with the two 15-letters entries solved straightaway. Solving time, 15 mins.

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A very pleasing puzzle, even when solving at 4am! A minor quibble with 17a but otherwise some enjoyable clues. Unusually for me the first run through generated no definite grid entries but the second pass was more fruitful (perhaps I was a little more awake by then   A quick scan of my archive revealed that we only see this setter occasionally which is a pity judging by today’s offering.

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Monday Prize Crossword on 19 January 2009
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
ACROSS
1 LOCKET Sounds like “lock it”
4 TEA CHEST Ins of EACH (everyone) in TEST (trial)
9 MAIDEN dd plus &lit. In cricket, an over (6 balls delivered) when no run is scored is called a maiden who is a girl and can be a synonym for a virgin
10 SCRAMBLE dd
12 ADJUTANT Cha of AD (advertisement or notice) JUT (project) ANT (worker)
13 SCORCH dd
15 TRIP dd as in tripping/setting off the alarm
16 ITINERANTS *(in transit e)
19 ATTACHMENT dd
20 IRON dd
23 GOES UP *(soup e.g)
25 GRAPHITE dd (lead in lead pencil)
27 IDOLATER *(tailored)
28 VESSEL dd
29 HITHERTO Cha of HIT (success) *(other)
30 CENSUS cd (using tell as in count money in the bank)

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Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 10th
I had some trouble finishing this puzzle, stumped for a while by 18A and 6D. Having solved it, I think 18A is rather brilliant. And 4D is rather fine as well. However 21A and 24A are too loose for requiring one to extract an indefinite lump out of the middle of a word or phrase.

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A mixture of some very easy and some very difficult clues, I found. Solving time, 24 mins

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A definite challenge today due to the Oxford College theme and some unfamiliar words. I found it difficult to get into the puzzle until the significance of ‘OC’ emerged and 7a/8d held me up for a while at the end (along with trying to parse 2d). I should have recognised the theme more quickly because there was a similar one some months ago. I have been unable to resolve 2d to my satisfaction (Edit: now sorted, thanks Eileen) and I also wonder about the correct interpretation of 16d.

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This was a nice fun puzzle to do – we found this unusually fast to do, and finished it off without needing to resort to external help (which makes a pleasant change )

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The usual nice Virgilius today, but I sense that some of it is passing me by. There was a sinking feeling as I stared at it, quite sure that the usual devilish Virgilius Nina was there, and could see nothing. But as I’ve been doing the blog, it has become a bit clear. Many of the answers are to do with luck, and several clues also. But what’s the whole story? Read the rest of this entry »

dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram

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Easy-peasy, with too many anagrams and partial anagrams. A crossword that runs on predictable lines. No clue except 1d excited me.

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*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone

An enjoyable puzzle that didn’t require vast amounts of general knowledge. There were some excellent surface definitions that appeared utterly bewildering at first glance (particularly 21 down).

Across
9	Epochal: Cope< + Hal.
10	Othello: Hello (magazine) after OT (Old Testament).
11	Yeast: [Baker]y + east.
12	Beelzebub: Bee + zebu in lb.
13	Ego: Go after [avenu]e.
14	Hummingbird: Humming + bird (in the prison sense).
17	Lateral Thinking: Kin in later Althing. The Althing is the Icelandic parliament (which, coincidentally, is mentioned several times in an article about Iceland).
20	Bearskin rug: (sure barking)*.
22	Yam: May<, although May as a synonym for spring seems a bit dubious.
23	Moonlight: Moo (low in its bovine sense) + first letter of luminescence in night.
26	Trust: Double definition.
27	On the go: ghent* in OO.
28	Monsoon: Monday soon.
Down
1	Very well: double def.
2	Cosa Nostra: (actor’s son)* over a.
3	Thatcher: last letter of government + hatcher.
4	Club: double def.
5	Come hither: me in (the choir)*.
6	Phizog: Phi + Zog.
7	Flab: Fab around l.
8	Forbid: For bid.
15	Melting pot: E lt in Ming + pot.
16	I kid you not: I kid + youn[g] + o + t.
18	Negating: eating* + ng.
19	Gemstone: MS in get one.
20	Bamboo: Bamb[in]o + o.
21	Solver: Sole around v + r = u (you in text messaging).
24	Otto: This was the only one I thought was a little obscure. It seems to be the palindromic name of a cyclist. The only moderately famous one I can find is Dag Otto, although there might be someone else.
25	Tome: Self-addressed = to me.

A nice easy start to the week with some of the down clues proving just a tad more difficult
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I found this mostly a little below average difficulty, but I think there’s an ambiguity in 1ac and a mistake in the wordplay of 13ac. This is the first Azed where the recommended dictionary is the 2008 edition of Chambers.

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Solving time: 11:45

A sports mini-theme this week, with QUESTION[s] OF SPORT including ANYONE FOR TENNIS, APPEAL and HOW’S THAT. I found this about medium difficulty with some nice clues but one or two dubious surface readings. I’m a little puzzled over 24ac, 5dn and 16dn.

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*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition.

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