Posted by shuchi on 12th March 2010
Straightforward solve today with most answers entered on first pass through the clues. I had to look up a couple of wordplay components that involved people’s names, but this didn’t pose much difficulty.
Posted in FT | 5 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 11th March 2010
I covered Alberich’s first FT puzzle eighteen months ago and my opening comment was “I don’t think I have ever completed an FT quite so quickly, the answers just seemed to enter themselves”. How things have changed since then! This one took me twice as long as usual and involved a fair degree of head-scratching.
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 11th March 2010
Monday Prize Crossword from 1 March 2010
A not-too-difficult week-opening puzzle from Crux … the Monday FT series is eminently suitable for beginners to cryptic crosswords to cut their teeth on. On my part, I shall continue to make my blogs simple and comprehensive to guide the newbies.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 11th March 2010
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 27
The nominees for best charade are 17A, 18A, 21A and 8D. And the winner is 8D! For best anagram or anagram-combination, the nominees are 9A, 14A and 3D. And the award goes to 9A. Finally, 9A, 8D and 27D are nominated for best overall clue. And the gong goes to 27D!!!
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 10th March 2010
A pretty challenging puzzle, with a rather curiously chosen mini-theme. My own personal recommendation from the menu would be a No. 5, a No. 11 and a No. 25.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Agentzero on 9th March 2010
I breezed through three-quarters of this puzzle in five or ten minutes, then got stuck for a while on the last four or five clues. I am still not sure of 25 down. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FT | 5 Comments »
Posted by shuchi on 5th March 2010
As always, an entertaining, challenging puzzle from Bradman. Required plenty of research/help to get this finished.
Posted in FT | 11 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 4th March 2010
A well-crafted tour through a variety of avenues of general knowledge today. We seem to cover everything from military history to folklore and geology, by way of a healthy dose of geography along the way.
Posted in FT | 6 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 4th March 2010
Monday Prize Crossword from 22 February 2010
Another smooth offering from the slick Dante. Very suitable for beginners to this delightful pastime of solving cryptic crosswords.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 4th March 2010
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 20
The top-left corner of this puzzle took me a while. I especially like 21D.
Posted in FT | 5 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 3rd March 2010
The preamble states that five answers have something in common but by my count it could be six.
Posted in FT | 11 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 2nd March 2010
One could say this was a gift of a puzzle because by and large most answers were easily obtainable, though I have minor reservations about 7, 18, 19 and 23dn. The parsing for 14dn took a few minutes to spot but the rest was quite straightforward.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by shuchi on 26th February 2010
The usual from Falcon, elegant and not too taxing.
One new word for me, at 24A, nothing too obscure otherwise.
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by smiffy on 25th February 2010
A paddle in the shallow-end today, with the waters only getting above knee-depth with the slightly obscure – but readily deducible – answer at 17D. Puns and cryptic standalones seem to feature more heavily than usual. Not necessarily a bad thing per se, but none of them struck me as particularly inspired.
Posted in FT | 5 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 25th February 2010
Monday Prize Crossword on 15 February 2010
I solved this puzzle while ushering in the Year of the Tiger and hope that the year ahead will be as smooth as the puzzle; nothing too tough but full of interesting snippets and delights. Yam Seng !!
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 25th February 2010
Posted in FT | 3 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 24th February 2010
A pleasant, gentle stroll today with nothing too 13ing, but I think there is an error in one of the clues (20dn) unless my parsing is incorrect.
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by Agentzero on 23rd February 2010
A good offering from one of the less frequent FT setters. Apologies for the late posting; I had solved this last night but didn’t have a chance to fill in the explanations until now. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by smiffy on 18th February 2010
Something of a class reunion for a lot of old friends here today (10A, 12A, 23A, 1D, 15D, 19D). On a related note, I did feel an unexpected twinge of childhood nostalgia courtesy of 4D.
Posted in FT | 2 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 18th February 2010
Monday Prize Crossword on 8 February 2010
Dante returns with another gentle week-opener full of smooth clues and slick definitions.
Posted in FT | No Comments »
Posted by Pete Maclean on 18th February 2010
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 6
Mudd gives us some jolly good double definitions here (notably 5A, 21A, 29A, 20D and 21D) but my choice for best clue is the cannibal one, 18D.
Posted in FT | 7 Comments »
Posted by Gaufrid on 17th February 2010
Overall I didn’t think this was as difficult as some Dogberry puzzles. It seemed to be something of a mixture, some very easy clues, some more tricky ones, some good surfaces and some that didn’t make much sense (at least to me). I rather liked the wordplay in 9dn.
Posted in FT | 1 Comment »
Posted by Agentzero on 16th February 2010
A good one from Neo, with some creative dissections of words in the charades (e.g., 25 and 29 ac). Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in FT | 9 Comments »
Posted by shuchi on 12th February 2010
After a series of easy Fridays, a tough one from Viking with some fine clues.
Posted in FT | 10 Comments »