Friday 23rd-Sunday 25th October 2026
Guardian Cryptic Survey Results
Some of you recently took part in the survey, originally posted here The results are now available here Thanks to all who took part.
Never knowingly undersolved
Some of you recently took part in the survey, originally posted here The results are now available here Thanks to all who took part.
Friday 23rd-Sunday 25th October 2026
Thanks Paul – this was an enjoyable struggle, with some tricky parsing to work through afterwards. My favourites were 15ac, 3/24, and 5dn.
Tack appears a few times a year in the Independent, but hasn’t landed in my blogging rota slot until now. The original puzzle is at https://puzzles.independent.co.uk/games/cryptic-crossword-independent/?puzzleDate=20260910.
A typically fun puzzle from Slormgorm today.
“Each clue is actually two clues run together. Either entry may be clued first; punctuation may mislead. Some answers are too short for their slots, and several others require two letters to occupy one cell; all enumerations count cells available. Cells in the latter group must each be divided by a diagonal line in a consistent way, entering one letter in each half such that entries read normally. Using the contents of these cells as a guide, solvers must insert an arrow in each vacant cell so that new words or phrases appropriate to the positions of the ONLOOKERS in the grid are symbolised. The Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended, but does not give the entry at 11 (in Collins and others).”
A tricky tribute puzzle.
Oh no! It’s Nimrod on a Wednesday!
It’s me again, with my scheduled blog this time. Thanks to Brummie for a typically entertaining puzzle. No theme that I can see, but you never know.
The scheduled blogger is unavailable, so here’s a quick rundown. I solved the puzzle first thing this morning: from what I remember it didn’t hold me up for long. Thanks to Budmo.
Coot has provided our Tuesday teaser today, on what is usually theme day.
Inquisitor 1975: Country Profile by Phi Apologies for the lateness of the blog. Our power went out about two minutes after cooking dinner and didn’t come back on until ten minutes after … Read more >>
Rather a tough workout from Phssthpok today . . .
A fun solve by the ever-pleasing Pabulum …
My apologies for the extreme lateness of this blog
GAFF kicks off the week with an anniversary puzzle…
Fez’s second appearance as the featured puzzle in MyCrossword.