Well, I for one think this one was a bit more challenging than the last few that I’ve blogged. A couple of nice cryptic definitions, and some slightly more obscure words both as solutions and part-solutions. My only complaint would be the level of geographic knowledge required with various place names and a currency (and even a baseball team) which, as much as you can use the wordplay and go “it really must be this”, if you don’t know, the only thing to do is look it up. But generally this was very nicely put together. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  Loved this weeks crossword as I did it really fast, which gives me the illusion that I am highly intelligent (Hee Hee)   Hope you all like the new format of including the clues.
BTW, this is the Trafites last blog as singletons, we are getting married on the 17th March

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Plenty of anagrams this week particularly in the down clues (I count 10 clues containing at least a part anagram). Since these are often the easiest to spot, it should have been quite good going, at least at first, this week but it wasn’t completely plain sailing with a couple of words not necessarily used by most of us on a daily basis – olios and caparison spring to mind. In this sense it was a very nice crossword with an easy “in” but also one where you it was necessary to rely on getting easier answers to have a chance at getting the harder ones. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  Thank you Everyman once again for a wonderful puzzle. I must add that although some people might find Everyman not taxing there are those of us who find that this puzzle is right up our street, so thank you once again.

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Well I think the obvious feature of this one is all the compound solutions. Personally I think these are fun, but that they make the whole thing much easier (the more words they contain, the fewer possible phrases there will be that fit that pattern). The best example of this is 14,17ac which was a very easy dd in which one was a literal reading (thus, I suppose, being the more cryptic) and another which was a definition of the phrase as it is used. Once this answer was put in the grid (and it really should have been one of the very first ones you put in) it gave 14 checking letters and from there the rest should have really filled itself in. I also have a small objection to 8dn in that the girls name used is so uncommon that I only know it exists because I guessed, typed it into google along with the words ‘girl’s name’ and it appeared. If you omit ‘girls name’ it doesn’t even come up as a name. Some other issues too as detailed by the individual clues… Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  Pretty straight forward this week, brain back to normal after the flu.

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Not my favourite ever – 11ac is a recent, but not very popular television show which I think is perhaps a little unfair. Also, the way that I parse is, 13dn requires BRAIN as a synonym for SUPPORT which I can’t quite figure . Any suggestions welcomed! EDIT – thanks anax for clearing this one up. My other complaint is that there were rather a lot of double definitions and some clues that hardly seemed crytic at all. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  Had trouble getting going on this one as I was poorly with flu, good old Nick jumped in to save the day though.

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I rather enjoyed this one. No particularly obscure words and a couple of nice cryptic definitions as part of more precise clues which raised smiles. Also generally the surfaces seemed to read better than they have done in a few previous weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  Another nice easy plod this week with plenty of anagrams which I enjoy doing. Comments would be welcome on 11 across as I could not think of what else it could possibly be.

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A rather nice and gentle end to the year – a couple of seasonal clues/answers and what with the slightly more obscure words being anagramatically clued, this was all pretty straightforward. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine: Took me a while to get going this week probably due to a hangover, but once I got started there was no stopping me.  Thank you once again Mr. Everyman for an enjoyable crossword and the seasonal message at 13 & 16 across.

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I am here as a substitute for the regular blogger. The crossword posed no difficulty but I am unable to explain Clue 16d fully. Season’s Greetings to all readers.

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Lorraine:  Fairly easy this week again, just love doing Everyman; I cannot wait for Sundays to arrive. Thank you Everyman.

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It seems that the ‘theme’ this week was multiple word phrases with six throughout the crossword including one 6 word composite and another 5 worder. Otherwise little of note and nothing that should have held anyone up for long. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine: This week it took me a while to get started!. Having 9 anagrams certainly helped me though, I love anagrams because you know without doubt that you have got the correct solution.

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Hopefully nothing too hard here. For some reason I wanted 15ac to be ALTAR for a while (A large being AL and in front of church being the definition) but after drawing various blanks on where TAR could have come from I moved on and saw the error of my ways! Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine: Another straight forward everyman this week, a real pleasure to solve.

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Sorry for the brevity of this post – I was busy all last weekend so it’s all been slightly last minute… Fortunately not too difficult – if it had been I probably wouldn’t have finished it in time! Read the rest of this entry »

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Another one that took a little while to get going but then got much easier. Not my favourite ever, but probably pretty fair throughout. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine: Straight forward again this week apart from 8 down (Obregon), I could not find any reference to this artist in any books I own so had to get Nick to google it for me. I had the answer but needed to confirm it.

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Not all that easy this week with quite a few less well known names, titles and phrases (for me at least!) Anyway, once it got going it was actually pretty plain sailing, but it just felt a little daunting at first. Read the rest of this entry »

Lorraine:  A bit of a toughie this week especially, Archbishop Lang (2dn) and Lucrezia Borgia!. I actually needed Nick’s help with this weeks, unlike last week which was super easy.  Thank you Mr. Everyman!.

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I didn’t really like this one. It’s unfortunate that IOUs was used in a clue to 14 ac and a solution to 2dn. I can’t properly parse 1dn, 16dn is a dreadful clue neither being a proper &lit or having any definition and I’m not sure why ground is “g” in 21dn or golf is “g” in 11ac except the words begin with the letter – surely there must be a common use of it as an abbreviation for it to be allowed. I’d love anyone to enlighten me on these points! “May cause” is a pretty poor anagram indicator in 14ac meaning you really have to rely on counting letters and realising there are 15 of them which is far from satisfying. Read the rest of this entry »