Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 31st August 2009
A well constructed puzzle but sadly not enough meat to keep one occupied for the whole bank holiday – good job I’d not yet tackled the Observer.
Posted in Guardian | 20 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 31st August 2009
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by beermagnet on 31st August 2009
Trouble with overconfidently putting in a couple of answers this time caused hold-ups but nothing that couldn’t be sorted out in the same solving session. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Private Eye/Cyclops | 3 Comments »
Posted by Arthur on 30th August 2009
It felt like a lot of anagrams and first or last letters this week, but maybe that was just the order in which I approached the clues. The few place name answers were not hard to work out from the wordplay, but also not that well-known (at least to me) so some post-crossword googling was required to check. Actually as a general rule, while the answers weren’t always obvious from the definition, the wordplay was usually pretty easy so it shouldn’t have been particularly troubling. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Everyman | 2 Comments »
Posted by John on 30th August 2009
I am always full of admiration for Azed’s grids. Here he has what seems to me to be a great achievement, four twelve-letter words, two next to each other going down the centre of the puzzle and two going across. As always, some of the words in the puzzle are very rare, but everything is clued soundly and fairly. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Azed | 4 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 29th August 2009
Excellent crossword as always. I never time these, but I did notice that I managed more of this without Chambers than I usually would. That probably has more to do with the tight clueing than with my own solving skills! There’s just the one I can’t explain, at 16ac, though I’m sure that’s the right answer.
Posted in Beelzebub | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 29th August 2009
A very entertaining theme for this prize crossword, and nicely hidden in the relevant surface(s).
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Posted by Colin Blackburn on 29th August 2009
With the preamble stating that there were 5 normal clues and 5 lines breaking up two misspelt words in the quotation there was clearly a connection. I found the clues easy enough (except for one) but the quotation proved less than straightforward until I had CENT-TCHU-A when the light dawned. It turns out the song title really is, AC-CENT-TCHU-ATE THE POSITIVE, ELIM-MY-NATE THE NEGATIVE. The five normal clues corresponded to the hyphens in the song title. The only slight problem was confirming the title via Google. I found plenty of references to the first word spelt and hyphenated that way but some had the second misspelt word spelt correctly and some had it misspelt correctly but not hyphenated. I’m sure the printed sheet music is authoritative though.
Posted in Enigmatic Variations | 7 Comments »
Posted by manehi on 28th August 2009
Solving and blogging in a rush today – thankfully, I found it fairly easy with the exception of 24ac which I’m unsure on. Liked 4dn.
Posted in Guardian | 31 Comments »
Posted by shuchi on 28th August 2009
On the easy side today, though I did have to look up UZI and BERG. All the long clues were specially good.
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by John on 28th August 2009
I wasn’t sure how easy this was since I chose to solve it online after midnight, being busy late on Friday morning and not wanting to get up safely early, but there are as usual several very nice clues. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 2 Comments »
Posted by HolyGhost on 28th August 2009
Back from walking in the Pyrenees – let’s hope this puzzle isn’t as controversial as #133!
Three (unspecified) answers are to be modified before entry, and answers to the eight italicised clues each have a thematic element removed. Corrected misprints in the definitions of half the remaining clues spell out a useful phrase. We have to highlight what was landed (24 cells).
The grid was 12 rows by 11 columns; also the length indications for two clues didn’t match the grid entries (20d and 32d) – though these seem to be simply minor typos.
Posted in Inquisitor | 1 Comment »
Posted by Ali on 27th August 2009
Nice stuff from Tees. Some excellent clues here, though there are one ot two I can’t quite piece together, so any pointers appreciated.
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 27th August 2009
After yesterday’s struggles with Enigmatist, I found this one mostly quite easy, except that 7dn stumped me for ages, and caused some problems with its crossing words too. Some tricky wordplay here, and a fine Paul-ism in 1ac. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 27th August 2009
I found this very easy, solving time 11 mins.
* = anagram < = reversed
Posted in Independent | No Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 27th August 2009
Monday Prize Crossword on 17 August 2009
dd = double definition
cd = cryptic definition
rev = reversed or reversal
ins = insertion
cha = charade
ha = hidden answer
*(fodder) = anagram
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 27th August 2009
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 15
I did this puzzle on a flight from London to the US returning from my summer vacation. I found it good as always although I do have a quibble about 19A. My favourite clue is probably 15D.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 26th August 2009
May I please remind contributors to this site of the Discussion Policy regarding multiple identities. These are not allowed. There have been several cases recently where people have posted comments under different names. Those responsible know who they are, as do I. Please desist otherwise you will either be put under moderation or, for persistent offenders, banned.
Posted in Announcements | No Comments »
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 26th August 2009
OK I have to admit defeat today – I really enjoyed the novelty of the elaborately long down clues but ended up unable to explain 16ac or completely nail 7dn.
Posted in Guardian | 45 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 26th August 2009
Seamless clueing as always. Mostly straightforward, but there were a few terms, or at least definitions, I wasn’t familiar with. Still, everything came together nicely as expected. I was particularly taken with one or two of the anagrams, e.g. 5dn.
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 26th August 2009
A most enjoyable challenge from Monk today though I wasn’t too happy with the clue for 1d which seemed a little lazy. There are many words consisting of only the first seven letters of the alphabet that could be clued this way.
Posted in FT | 4 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 25th August 2009
Apologies for the late appearance of this analysis and for the lack of any real comment. I cannot remember too much about this puzzle having completed many more crosswords in the time between solving and writing this post. Had I known I was going to need to stand in at the last moment I would have made some notes whilst solving. All I can say is that, on my copy, I do not have a question mark against any of the clues so there cannot have been anything contentious (not that this is likely with an Azed).
Posted in Azed | 4 Comments »
Posted by Agentzero on 25th August 2009
I had a number of questions or quibbles here.
| Across | |
|---|---|
| 1 | GOSSIP-WRITER *(I REPORT SWIGS) |
| 10 | REELING EEL (fish) in RING (bell) |
| 11 | VANILLA AN in VILLA (home in Rome). Vanilla is an orchid extract. |
| 12 | MUSIC MU (Greek character) SIC (thus) |
| 13 | KERCHIEF homophone of “cur chief” (head of scoundrels) |
| 15 | TRANSCRIBE N (name) and CRIB (cheat) in *(TEARS) |
| 16 | UGLY homophone of UGLI |
| 18 | CHER dd |
| 20 | GOOD FOR YOU *(DUO OR GOOFY) |
| 22 | ROCK BASS ROCK (pop) B (beginning to bug) ASS (jenny) |
| 24 | BIG UP BIG (huge) UP (increase). Hmm. I have heard the slang phrase “Big ups to …” generally meaning “kudos to …” I never heard of it being used in the singular. |
| 26 | NARRATE *(RARE ANT) |
| 27 | SUNBURN SUN (star) BURN (to make CD) |
| 28 | TWENTY-TWENTY dd |
| Down | |
| 2 | OPEN SEA *(EUROPEANS minus UR (hesitation)) First time I’ve seen UR rather than ER for hesitation. |
| 3 | SUITCASE SUIT (appropriate) (how are these the same parts of speech?) CASE (cartridge). |
| 4 | PAGE P (quiet) AGE (period). |
| 5 | REVIEW BODY REVIEW (assess) BODY (corpus). IMHO, clues in which a two-word phrase are based on indicators for each of the two words separately generally aren’t that interesting. |
| 6 | TUNIC hidden in PashTUN I Caught |
| 7 | ROLLING [st]ROLLING (promenading when street’s blocked) |
| 8 | DRAMATIC IRONY *(CRY + ADMIRATION) |
| 9 | BARFLY JUMPING I think this is BAR (but) FLY (cunning? more slang?) JUMPING (vaulting). Apparently the practice of jumping up against a wall while wearing a velcro suit. |
| 14 | ORION’S BELT ORION’S (hunter’s) BELT (career, as in to move fast and somewhat wildly). Same comment as re 5 down. |
| 17 | SORBONNE SOR (homophone of SAW = “witnessed”) BONNE (“good,” French) |
| 19 | EXCERPT R (Romeo) in EXCEPT (bar) |
| 21 | YOGHURT *(HOG) in YURT (tent) |
| 23 | BLAME B (second-rate) LAME (golden fabric) |
| 25 | ISN’T I (one) + N (new) in ST (outer parts of “Somerset”) |
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 25th August 2009
A themed puzzle on the punk group SEX PISTOLS (2 down). The associated answers are titles of some of their best-known hits. I found it very tough indeed. Solving time, 70 mins. Perhaps a favourite of the setter’s in the light of his pseudonym.
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »