Posted by diagacht on 18th March 2010
An interesting themed puzzle with some tricky clues. The special instructions refer to different rules for 13 and 15, and that is the way in to the theme. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 54 Comments »
Posted by mhl on 17th March 2010
Lots of ducks in today’s crossword – yet another rushed post from me in rather awkward circumstances, and I’m afraid I don’t get 12 across or 7 down
Posted in Guardian | 65 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 16th March 2010
Paul certainly knows how to make a theme exciting, right from 1Across to 22Down. In between, he sprinkled his wit and humour liberally. Challenging in parts but mostly very very entertaining. Bravo, Paul, another good day at the office.
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 15th March 2010
The usual Rufus combination of cryptic [not too many] and double definitions and elegant and witty surfaces.
Posted in Guardian | 26 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 13th March 2010
I’m a last-minute substitute for rightback, who, unfortunately, has internet problems, so, not having expected to blog this, I’m trying to remember my thought processes when I solved it a week ago and the blog may well be less full than you would expect. I do know that the two long answers came first, almost solely from the enumeration [with one wee hiccup, see below]. They didn’t prove too much of a spoiler, though: there was lots still to go at and enjoy. Apologies for the lack of the customary Saturday title and theme music: suggestions welcome! [Slightly off-topic - but related - I lay low on yesterday's Araucaria, which I thought was one of the most outrageous I have ever seen and, I think, stretched the limits of even his most ardent champions! I feel on more stable ground here and am delighted to be able to blog my favourite compiler's puzzle!]
Posted in Guardian | 30 Comments »
Posted by manehi on 12th March 2010
A struggle for me today, even for an Araucaria. Managed to fill in the grid thanks to checkers but still can’t figure out some of the clues. Favourite clues were 23ac, 7dn.
Posted in Guardian | 48 Comments »
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 Eileen on 10th March 2010
I haven’t much to say about this puzzle. There is nothing contentious, I think, but, for me, no ‘ahas’ or smiles, either, and too many charades, my least favourite type of clue.
Posted in Guardian | 38 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 9th March 2010
Another mixed bag of goodies from Gordius with many standard devices and some not-so-standard devices like 10A and 19D. Quite challenging overall and entertaining in parts – don’t we all snicker after solving a Spooner clue?
Posted in Guardian | 27 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 8th March 2010
The usual gentle start to the week with Rufus. There are only five cryptic definitions in this puzzle, which I think is less than the average, though I was fooled for a while by thinking there was another one at 23dn. As always, lots of nice clues with smooth surfaces, though I have a couple of grammatical quibbles at 16dn and 21dn.
Posted in Guardian | 36 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 6th March 2010
Solving time: Fail.
The theme here was American states, of which there are an impressive 12 in the grid (plus references to more in the clues), but this was easy to spot and the thematic clues would have been largely wasted on any solvers (and I’m sure there are plenty) who could reel off at least the majority of the 50 states. As a result three quarters of this fell out very quickly, but I stalled in the bottom right. Eventually I spotted ECSTASY but drew a blank on 16dn (BIDENTATE) and 24dn (ETONS?), and I still don’t understand the latter or the wordplay to 14dn.
Posted in Guardian | 22 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 Eileen on 4th March 2010
I consider myself very fortunate in drawing this one, as I blogged the last Brendan. There’s the usual witty and clever cluing and enough cross-reference to add interest, without making it too easy. I enjoyed it a lot. [There’s one clue I haven’t solved and another I can’t explain. I’m sure help is at hand!
Posted in Guardian | 65 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 3rd March 2010
I found it very hard to get started on this one, but getting 3dn, swiftly followed by 15dn, and most of the linked answers, filled up a lot of the grid, and the rest was only slightly troublesome. Lots of clever clueing and humour here, as we have come to expect from Paul. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 43 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 2nd March 2010
A delightful potpourri of various cryptic devices to brighten up a Tuesday morning. Not too difficult and quite entertaining, too.
Posted in Guardian | 33 Comments »
Posted by diagacht on 1st March 2010
Many congratulations to Rufus on this his 1,000th puzzle! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Guardian | 30 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 26th February 2010
Solving time: 14 mins
I don’t think I’ve ever finished a crossword having understood so few of the solutions! It took me at least as long again to fathom them all out. As well as the long quotation starting at 22dn there are several inter-clue references, especially to 17 (CRIMINAL), which always make it harder to get started but I got very lucky by spotting the quotation from the unique enumeration (2,2,2,3,2,2,…).
Posted in Guardian | 38 Comments »
Posted by Eileen on 26th February 2010
A quite quick second appearance for Bonxie this year, considering we had only four of his / her puzzles last year [thanks, Andrew!]. There was nothing too taxing – some ingenious clues and a few niggles.
Posted in Guardian | 37 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 25th February 2010
Quite a tough one from Paul, with some characteristic humour. I don’t fully understand 1 across, and I have some niggles about a couple of other clues.
Posted in Guardian | 47 Comments »
Posted by manehi on 24th February 2010
Maybe it’s the time of night, but I found this quite a slow solve for a Quantum and got held up in a few places despite the long clues falling early. A few niggles, but I liked 18ac, 24ac and 19dn.
Posted in Guardian | 36 Comments »
Posted by Uncle Yap on 23rd February 2010
A mixed bag from Gordius. Some excellent clues, somewhat spoiled by a couple of mediocre ones.
Posted in Guardian | 18 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 Andrew on 21st February 2010
I thought it would be interesting put together some statistics about how many puzzles there were from each Guardian setter in 2009, and how many comments the blogs have attracted on this site. I’ve treated the weekday and Saturday prize puzzles separately, as the latter are hugely dominated by Araucaria and (to a lesser extent) Paul, and also because they tend to have far fewer comments. It’s been fascinating to review the blogs and to relive some of the highs and lows of the blogging and commenting year: I can highly recommend it as a way of passing time that should probably be spent doing something more productive.
Posted in Guardian | 7 Comments »
Posted by rightback on 20th February 2010
Posted in Guardian | 34 Comments »
Posted by Andrew on 19th February 2010
Another very tricky puzzle to finish off the week. The many cross-references and multiple-entry answers made it hard to get started, and even after getting some of the key answers it didn’t get much easier, not helped by the fact that I was only vaguely familiar with 21/19/10/23. Nevertheless, a lot of sound and clever clueing made it enjoyable and rewarding to persevere with.
Posted in Guardian | 52 Comments »