Financial Times 13,517 / Viking
A typically classy puzzle by Viking. It is with a heavy heart that I blog this, knowing that Viking will not be delighting us with new puzzles or leaving a comment on the … Read more >>
Month: October 2010
Guardian 25,142 / Brendan
Another tour de force from Brendan – a very enjoyable solve, I thought, with too many top quality clues for me to pick out any in particular. (As should be immediately obviously, all … Read more >>
Independent 7488 – Phi
Usual Phi goodness. As per usual with Phi there’s a composer. Doubt there’s much to trouble moderately experienced solvers today although 7d is an unknown phrase to me. Across 7 San Andreas Fault … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,516 – Hamilton
Hamilton’s puzzles are growing on me; he seems to be developing more of a personality of his own with each and every appearance. Stylistically there are a few Libertarian peccadillos, but I get … Read more >>
Independent 7,487 by Tees
I tend to enjoy Tees’ puzzles these days, but I struggled a bit with some of this one, so it’ll be interesting to hear how other folks got on. Spotting the Nina helped: … Read more >>
Guardian 25,141 / Araucaria
After four days in the wilderness of no internet access -it’s very lonely out there – it’s great to be back in the nick of time to post my scheduled blog – especially … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,507 – Falcon
Monday Prize Crossword on 4 October 2010 Not the usual week-opening breeze this time since Falcon had a couple of hard-boiled eggs which I could not fully understand without help from my occasional … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,506 by Cinephile
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 2 This is the best Cinephile I remember in a while. The theme is one there is little you have to figure out about; perhaps … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,515 / Cinephile
A rather tricky themed puzzle from Cinephile today with some obscure answers, in particular two place names though fortunately these were clued with easy wordplay. Definitely not one for beginners or those without … Read more >>
Independent 7486 – Dac
Delighted to make an occasional report on a weekday Indie, and to tackle a Dac puzzle well up to the usual standard. It’s not difficult but there’s lots to like. Obviously there’s the … Read more >>
Guardian 25.140 – Crucible
I found this quite hard (as was yesterday’s Brummie), but there were some easy long anagrams to get started with, and some very nice clues, with 20dn being my favourite, closely followed by … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1146: Grub Up by Lato
Inquisitor 1146 Another fairly complex preamble. In essence it says that twelve entries are not clued in the conventional way. Four of them are clued by single extra words in four clues. Further, … Read more >>
Independent 7485/Scorpion
I always fear crosswords by Scorpion, expecting them to be impossibly hard. However, this one was perfectly all right, several nice clues, one I didn’t and still don’t understand, but that’s only usual. To … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,514 / Alberich
This was a challenge for me: more difficult than the usual Tuesday FT fare. However, Alberich has rewarded our efforts with a very clever puzzle. Particularly nice were several clues in which … … Read more >>
Guardian 25139 – One-Eyed Brummie
One of the events I look forward to every fortnight is the appearance of the latest Private Eye puzzle with its irreverent, risque and outrageous clues. Today, as Brummie, this compiler included some … Read more >>