Posted by mhl on 11th March 2010
A rather rushed post, I’m afraid, so apologies for errors and omissions, which I probably won’t be able to fix until much later. Overall, an enjoyable puzzle, with the odd bit of tough vocabulary. (After seeing “Dude” and “tenpin” bowler in the surface readings, I was hoping for a Big Lebowski theme, but I can’t spot any other references…)
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 5th March 2010
Lots to enjoy in this crossword, I thought – in particular some good anagrams. I think it should have all been pretty straightforward, except for perhaps 19 across (which I really liked, though)
Posted in Guardian | 39 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 22nd February 2010
A fun puzzle from Rufus – I had a bit of trouble with the bottom-left corner (21a and 24a) but otherwise this was pretty easy and satisfying to solve.
Posted in Guardian | 42 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 17th February 2010
We get roughly a puzzle a month from Brummie in the Guardian, so I think I end up doing more of his Private Eye puzzles (as Cyclops) overall and it’s good fortune to get to do a blog post on one. I found this crossword tricky, with a few difficult definitions. It’s a bit annoying that I spent a long time staring at 9 across before discovering from the comments on the Guardian’s site that the clue had been replaced.
Posted in Guardian | 37 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 11th February 2010
A very enjoyable crossword from Paul, with nothing too tricky, I think, unless the few themed answers were unfamiliar to you. (They helped a lot in our case.)
Posted in Guardian | 48 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 25th January 2010
A very quick post today, so please accept my apologies for any errors or omissions. It probably goes without saying, given the setter, but this is great stuff – lovely surface readings, fair clues IMO and there’s a nice theme. Quite a few hidden answers compared to normal, but I’m not sure if there’s any pattern there.
Posted in Guardian | 39 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 14th January 2010
A typically enjoyable Chifonie, I think – some tricky clues sprinkled among the easier ones
Posted in Guardian | 30 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 8th January 2010
A mixed puzzle, which unfortunately exemplifies why recently I’ve only been doing puzzles from my favourite setters when they come up in the Guardian – there are some excellent clues, but enough dodgy devices along the way that as a solver I found myself discouraged.
Posted in Guardian | 29 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 28th December 2009
The usual excellent Monday crossword from Rufus – a few somewhat tricky clues, I thought, and lovely surface readings throughout. I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas. (I’m afraid I won’t be able to apply any corrections until much later today, due to travelling.)
Posted in Guardian | 19 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 23rd December 2009
This is the fourth crossword by Crucible for the Guardian, as far as I can tell. (This setter more frequently appears as Radian in the Independent.) There are plenty of clever (and tricky to parse!) clues here – overall tough but satisfying, I thought. Merry Christmas to everyone ☃
Posted in Guardian | 34 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 17th December 2009
Quite a tough puzzle today, I thought, with a few words I wasn’t familiar with – these were all quite guessable from the clues though.
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 11th December 2009
An enjoyable puzzle today, with nothing too difficult apart from the reference in 11 across, I thought.
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 25th November 2009
I found this rather hard work, but with lots of excellent clues – 25 across in particular.
Posted in Guardian | 30 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 19th November 2009
Many fun clues today, as you’d expect from Paul, and some interesting words. I found this much more difficult than a typical Paul crossword for some reason.
Posted in Guardian | 27 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 13th November 2009
I enjoyed this one – quite a few nice clues. (3 of my last 8 blog posts have been on Gordius puzzles, as it turns out…)
Posted in Guardian | 32 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 2nd November 2009
A fun and quite quick puzzle to start the week. 12d and 25a were the troublesome ones for me.
Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 28th October 2009
Apologies for the late post – I’m afraid I woke up late in an inconvenient time zone, don’t have access to a printer, found my online Chambers subscription had run out (and it won’t let me renew it), the Java applet crashed, it’s raining, etc. etc.
Posted in Guardian | 14 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 22nd October 2009
We got through this very fast indeed – I don’t think there’s much that should have caused problems. The surface readings are very nice throughout.
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 16th October 2009
As usual, a really top quality puzzle from Brendan – great surface readings and some surprising wordplay. Thanks to IanN14 for pointing out the theme of U.S. presidents, Franklin PIERCE, Abraham LINCOLN, Andrew JOHNSON (or Lyndon B. JOHNSON), Ulysses S. GRANT, Chester A. ARTHUR, Woodrow WILSON, Herbert HOOVER and Gerald FORD. Further update (thanks again, IanN14!): there’s also a Nina down the middle column: Barack OBAMA
Posted in Guardian | 17 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 30th September 2009
Excellent stuff from Paul today; we made steady progress through this last night and completed it without having to look anything up, so I think the difficulty’s about right. My particular favourite is MORGAN FREEMAN but there are lots of satisfying clues.
Posted in Guardian | 21 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 24th September 2009
We enjoyed this and just missed out 8 down, so it’s probably a good difficulty level for a daily puzzle. I particularly liked the surface readings of 9a, 10a, 3d and 12a. Update: thanks to Bryan for pointing out the theme, which I stupidly missed: WEST SIDE STORY is in the answers, along with the gangs (the JETS the SHARKS) and several songs (TONIGHT, MARIA, AMERICA, SOMEWHERE)
Posted in Guardian | 12 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 18th September 2009
Not too tricky for a Gordius puzzle, but with a few that needed some time to work out the wordplay.
Posted in Guardian | 25 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 7th September 2009
I’m afraid I’m under thesis deadline pressure this week, but my partner very kindly offered to write notes on this one, so I’m just reposting what she wrote…
Posted in Guardian | 16 Comments »