I enjoyed this and didn’t find it as hard as last time. How hard anyone finds a puzzle must vary not just from puzzle to puzzle and person to person but also depends upon other factors such as your comfort, worries, tiredness, how many pints you are to the good, how many pints you haven’t had, and so on. Last time I did have a struggle, for whatever reason, but looking back at that puzzle now I can understand some of the comments suggesting it was easier than I described. Looking at this one, I’m unsure whether to describe it as easy. It was certainly enjoyable and there are some suitably rude and funny surface readings helped by another clutch of inventive anagram indicators. And I did finish it in one sitting. This time there were no nasty tail-enders hanging on with no score, sometimes overnight, till eventually stumped.
This was under quite idyllic solving conditions – quietly in the garden with the blossom out on an afternoon of a beautiful spring day after with a well earned pint (and another bottle to hand) after giving a couple of hours to turning over the vegetable patch.
This may not be everyone’s experience, and I can well believe there are a couple of clues here that would normally have resisted my attentions longer.

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This was again harder than most Eye crosswords with a few very tough clues.
I had trouble in the bottom half – and particular trouble with number 2. Read the rest of this entry »

Anyone else find this much more difficult this time?
I had an empty top right corner for some time, a number of clues didn’t “firm up” till I was writing this blog, and I still don’t understand 9A. Read the rest of this entry »

Answers to clues marked with an asterisk are some of the “pseudo names” used by correspondents to the Eye a few issues ago. It started with a few die-hard footy fans trying to get the name of their team mentioned (e.g. Don Casterovers, R Snell, Ray Throvers etc.), then minority sports, pop music fans and others joined in …
… or that’s how it seemed …
… It is clear now it was a concerted effort by verbal anarchists to inflict homophonic outrage on satirical elements of the stalwart British public. The epidemic spread like, err, a disease with pseudo-commandos leaving the enclave at the end of the letters page and infiltrating other areas such as Pedantry Corner.
They said it would be all over by Christmas, but by then large sections of the letters page were annexed by these pseudo-jackboot-boys. At last Hislop saw the danger and using an editorial WMD banished them. There was a final campaign to mop up resistance on the internet, though some sniping continues to this day. Read the rest of this entry »

Another fairly easy outing from Cyclops, particularly in comparison to his Saturday Prize Guardian Brummie (24-Jan) which I struggled with just before tackling this one, so I may be over-judging how easy this was. Nevertheless, with the Private Eye puzzle being more accessible of late, it is the ideal time for anyone unfamiliar with it to have a go. Read the rest of this entry »

A gentle start to 2009.
Nothing here held me up – which is just as well as my accountant tells me I’m supposed to be preparing my tax return right now. I don’t note times but without the usual last few I have to mull over I finished this before the pint. Awarded self another pint of Wychwood Circlemaster as a prize anyway.
Now where did I put those receipts … Read the rest of this entry »

This Xmas special was worth looking forward to.  27×27 grid plus usual longish Cyclops clues must be the limit for a page in the Eye.  The special feature this year was that 12 clues with no definition gave the identities of people who had been quoted in Pseuds Corner throughout the previous year.
Despite appearances I found it not quite as tricky as previous years.  I initially thought I would need to venture into the toppling pile of old Eyes in the corner of my office and flick through the PC entries for “inspiration”.  In fact, I managed to find all the names without such recourse, and finished most of the grid quite quickly considering its size – I was enjoying it rather than looking at the time and remember being surprised when I had only a handful left.  But for those few, especially 57A FAVE, I needed a few Xmas days to mull over.
For the PC names it probably helped if you were also a Guardian reader, most PC candidates come from there.  I did think of a few names up front, but was disappointed to find no mention of Richard Williams, Laura Barton or even Will Self – maybe his writing doesn’t really count as it is clearly consciously pretentious – but was not at all surprised to quickly get AA Gill and top YBA and all round asset to Britain Tracey E.
Anyway, for the blog I have flicked through the old issues and searched out the appropriate quotes as much possible and have put links and bits and pieces at the end of the blog.  I hope they make you laugh as much as me. Read the rest of this entry »

A few reasonably tricky clues this time, and a bit of a panic when stuck on 4D, so quite satisfying to finish this one in the end.

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Cyclops getting in early with his opinion of Xmas at 1 Across? Read the rest of this entry »

The theme this time is the recent 25A perpetrated by 5A/21 and 15A/8 which 8D and embarrassed the 11A. One of them has jumped ship before he 1D. The other has been suspended in a 14D move by 11A. They were probably 12D. No doubt a few 3Ds chipped in with soundbites.

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If there is a theme to this crossword it is that Cyclops has used “Balls” in many clues in several different senses. Ed Balls naturally gets a thorough workout, and there are clues using the word in the sense of rubbish and circles etc. as well as merely providing letter fodder (e.g. 27A) Read the rest of this entry »

Some particularly nice anagram clues this time.

There are a couple of questions arising in the chat below that I’d be obliged if someone can answer. Read the rest of this entry »

An enjoyable romp through this until the end when I was struggling over Laura for far too long (if you see what I mean). Read the rest of this entry »

An entertaining puzzle in more than one sense – I enjoyed it – and there are clues using “entertained by” as “container and contents” indicator more than once, but I only point this out because I noticed it, they are both very good clues. (I’m sure no-one notices these things unless e.g. doing a blog.)
Not as easy as last time, but nothing dreadfully hard. Read the rest of this entry »

I don’t note solving times but maybe I ought to start as I’m pretty sure I must’ve had a Personal Best for this one. Must’ve been about 15 minutes. There was nothing here to cause a hold-up. Last clue in, 14/27 Alistair Darling, I would have got with fewer crossing letters if I’d had to and I was quite surprised to find a complete grid.
Of course, looking back on it now (the next day) I realise this was one of the easiest Eye crosswords for some time. Read the rest of this entry »

… of the one-armed pedant

The crossword that dared to cross Beelzebub with Ann Widdecombe … Read the rest of this entry »

There seemed to me to be a lot of question mark ended clues this time, at least they were the ones I had most trouble with, probably just me then.  In truth this was solid stuff from the one-eyed one.  Read the rest of this entry »

Another crossword where the last answer (correctly) written in is the first clue you look at, i.e. 1A or equivalent. This seems to have been happening to me a lot recently. Is it just that these instances and more memorable? Are setters purposely making 1A clues harder than the rest? Or is it simply that my brain is less in tune with cryptic thinking, more easily misled or fixated, early on in a solving session? Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time : 3 pints
Blogging time: 1 pint (just to make up the half, like)
Currently drinking: Marston’s Pedigree
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This was most enjoyable.

Erm..  I haven’t got much to say about this one.  It was standard Eye/Cyclops stuff with nothing to greatly complain about, but also also not much to praise – merely workmanlike.  Oh Gawd – have I become a critic now?  Let’s get on with the detail: Read the rest of this entry »

Last time I wondered if C had gone a step too far with his capitalisation.
This time I wonder if he has gone a C too far. Read the rest of this entry »