Never knowingly undersolved
Andrew Once a regular setter, Orlando only appears rarely these days, so it was a delight to see his name on today’s puzzle, especially after the equally welcome surprise of fellow old-timer Brendan on … Read more >>
I was confidently expecting today’s setter to be Paul, but it was certainly no disappointment to see Brendan instead (not that I have anything against Paul). We have a theme, of course, pointed … Read more >>
It gets harder and harder to say anything new about Azed – just another top-quality puzzle, as ever. I thought I’d caught him out in an error in 22d, but not surprisingly the … Read more >>
A delightful puzzle from Nutmeg; not difficult, but with elegant and witty clueing throughout, and some nicely concealed definitions. I was helped by spotting the Nina early on: around the perimeter we have … Read more >>
A very enjoyable puzzle from Philistine today. I found it quite a quick solve, helped by gentle clueing for the four long answers around the outside of the grid. Thanks to Philistine. … Read more >>
Unusually, no cryptic definitions from Vulcan today, but instead we have nine double defs, though a couple of them barely qualify. Mostly very straightforward clueing, but I’m unable to parse 15 across. (See … Read more >>
A clever construction with the usual excellent clueing by Picaroon today.
Another enjoyable puzzle from Qaos, which I found quite tricky in parts. One down was an early answer, and it alerted me to the possibility of a film theme. From JAWS I guessed … Read more >>
A harder-than-average Azed, I thought, with a fairly high proportion of unfamiliar words. All impeccably clued as usual, though I’m a little unsure about my parsing of 28. Thanks to Azed … Read more >>
Apart from a few easy clues that got me started, I didn’t seem to be on Imogen’s wavelength at all this morning, and found this quite a struggle. One partially defective clue, I … Read more >>
I see with some surprise that I’ve been blogging of Fifteensquared for just over eleven years, but this, my 699th contribution, is the first for The Independent. Not surprisingly on a Friday, it’s a Phi, so thanks to him.
This mostly slipped in very quickly, though there were a couple of parsings that took me a while.
As is often the case with Genius puzzles, the instructions were not particularly helpful at first glance, so it was just a case of trying to solve some clues, with or without the … Read more >>
A bank holiday in some parts of the UK, and a typically gentle puzzle from Chifonie to accompany it, slightly spoiled for me by some inaccuracies in the clueing, as noted below. Thanks … Read more >>
I’m usually a big fan of Picaroon’s, but I didn’t think this was one of his best. There are some nice clues, of course, but also a couple of slightly dubious definitions. Still, … Read more >>