Guardian 24,706 – Shed
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 22nd May 2009
Not really an overall theme today, but a few movie references and some very enjoyable clues.
Posted in Guardian | 24 Comments »
Author Archive
Guardian 24,696 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 11th May 2009
A fairly straightforward puzzle, but with a few clues I wasn’t happy with – some very tortured defs in 12ac, 15ac, 18dn, for instance. I did like some of the shorter simple clues, as it makes me feel really smart to be able to just wizz through them. I guess that’s how proper solvers feel the rest of the time! I wouldn’t want it this simple every day though.
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Guardian 24,688 – Bonxie
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 1st May 2009
An unfamiliar setter to me, but seems quite fond of anagrams. In fact once I started to assume every answer was going to be an anagram, the second half went a lot quicker.
Posted in Guardian | 32 Comments »
Guardian 24,681 – Shed
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 23rd April 2009
Medium difficulty today, I’d say. No obvious theme aside from maybe 11ac and 1dn! I like Shed normally, and this was no exception – the unknown words all seem to somehow be etymologically possible, if that makes sense.
Posted in Guardian | 29 Comments »
Guardian 24,674 – Araucaria
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 15th April 2009
It’s fun to tackle Araucaria on a wednesday, he’s a bit less vicious but still as inventive as ever. I particularly enjoyed the pair of tricky anagrams in 5ac/7dn, the triply-defined 11ac, and 1dn just because I’m a fan of the books.
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Guardian 24,666 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 6th April 2009
An auspicious puzzle number to start the week with. Very satisfactory Monday fare, with a couple of puzzlers but no real complaints and a lot of enjoyment! I especially liked 15ac, I’m not sure what these clues are called but like them when they come up.
Posted in Guardian | 24 Comments »
Guardian 24,664 – Gordius
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 3rd April 2009
Very enjoyable today, quite a few c.d.s which seems to be a Gordius trait.
Posted in Guardian | 41 Comments »
Guardian 24,657 – Paul
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 26th March 2009
Quite easy for a thursday I thought, but I was left with a couple of quibbles and uncertainties. These were balanced by the highly enjoyable 9ac, 11ac and 25ac.
Posted in Guardian | 24 Comments »
Guardian 24,650 – Shed
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 18th March 2009
Posted in Guardian | 32 Comments »
Guardian 24,642 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 9th March 2009
Apologies for being a bit later than normal, I didn’t get a chance to look at today’s puzzle until around lunch. Lots of cryptic definitions today.
Posted in Guardian | 45 Comments »
Guardian 24,640 – Brendan
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 6th March 2009
This blog was accidentally published early – apologies if it looked a little incomplete!
Posted in Guardian | 52 Comments »
Independent 6979 – Phi
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 27th February 2009
My first venture into blogging about the Independent, and an enjoyable puzzle to start with! Plenty of good surfaces and not too many unfamiliar words (1dn and 23ac being the only times I had to reach for the dictionary).
Posted in Independent | 8 Comments »
Guardian 24,633 – Araucaria
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 26th February 2009
An interesting theme today, and luckily for me something I managed to guess early on – I suspect it’d be somewhat impenetrable if you can’t guess what BG stands for (I’ve assumed British Game [It's been pointed out in the comments that 'ball game' is more likely]), and there’s precious little else to help you along until you get there!
Posted in Guardian | 42 Comments »
Guardian 24,624 – Auster
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 16th February 2009
As easy as you’d expect on a Monday except for a few horticultural clues that were completely out of my areas of expertise, which had to wait until I had most of the checking letters and then required a bit of dictionary work to confirm once I’d had a guess from the wordplay.
Posted in Guardian | 31 Comments »
Guardian 24,622 – Orlando
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 13th February 2009
Straightforward for a friday but very pleasing with a nice agricultural theme.
Posted in Guardian | 48 Comments »
Guardian 24,611 – Araucaria
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 7th February 2009
My first Saturday crossword and it was an Araucaria so I was a bit intimidated, but managed ok. It took just over an hour to fill out most of the grid, then the remaining 4-5 slotted in the next day after a break, and I couldn’t see how I hadn’t got them the day before (always the way).
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Guardian 24,616 – Puck
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 6th February 2009
Puck seems to be in a thirsty, miserable mood, with a number of references to drinking / being drunk as well as depression in the clues. Quite a few tricky ones today, I found, that even with all the checking letters took a while to sort out.
Posted in Guardian | 27 Comments »
Guardian 24,609 – Gordius
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 29th January 2009
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.
Posted in Guardian | 47 Comments »
Guardian 24,602 – Paul
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 21st January 2009
Another toughie from Paul. The theme was enjoyable for a film buff, but a few clues didn’t quite sound right for me.
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »
Guardian 24,594 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 12th January 2009
I sometimes get psyched out when I can’t get 1A easily, so I took a little while to get started today. Ploughed through most of the puzzle once I got going but took a long time to finish off the top-left corner.
Posted in Guardian | 46 Comments »
Guardian 24,592 – Araucaria
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 9th January 2009
An enjoyable Araucaria today, with a completely non-topical theme of the Proms, with a bit of Shakespeare thrown in.
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »
Guardian 24,585 – Chifonie
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 1st January 2009
Thankfully not that complicated today after a late night, but a reasonable challenge. There are lots of straightforward formulations, but with nice surfaces and some tricky meanings.
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Guardian 24,578 – Rufus
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 22nd December 2008
As sometimes happens, I filled in the grid very quickly but took a while to come up with the reasoning behind some of the clues.
Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »
Guardian 24,576 – Gordius
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 19th December 2008
Not too hard today but a few unsatisfactory clues.
“” = homophone
* = anagram
< = reversed
Posted in Guardian | 28 Comments »
Guardian 24,569 – Paul
Posted by Ciaran McNulty on 11th December 2008
A very enjoyable puzzle today, with two interlinking themes that I would say are reasonably unobscure.
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »