Never knowingly undersolved
John Apologies for the slight lateness of this blog. Mild computer problems.
I’d always thought that Tuesdays and Thursdays were the difficult days. Not that this was all that easy, but it was on the easy side of average. On the whole very pleasant, although there are one or two I’m not quite sure about.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
It seems that Eccles is becoming an increasingly regular setter on Fifteensquared, filling in many of the Wednesday slots that used to be occupied by Dac. Which is appropriate, for he is a good setter, not the hardest, but always challenging enough and pleasant to solve.
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Always a pleasure to blog a Morph. As usual he is quite difficult but imaginative and inventive in his clueing.
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This was a rather-kinder-than-usual crossword from Phi, but its neat clueing was as good as always.
I shall not be in later so won’t be able to react to any comments until late on Saturday at the earliest.
Definitions underlined, in maroon. Anagram indicators in italics.
I enjoyed this. A pleasant and gentle (?) workout from one of the Indy’s top setters. Perhaps one could criticise the fact that there are rather a lot of single letters clued by things like ‘ultimately’ and ‘initially’, but it is done so smoothly that this is hardly a blemish.
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This was the usual smooth solving experience, but slightly less smooth than usual because there were some unfamiliar words as well as one that looked like a mistake until Collins came to the rescue. So the solving experience was marginally stuttering.
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Not the easiest. I’m embarrassed to say how long it took, even with all sorts of aids. But no real complaints — one or two things that seemed at the time to be stretching things a bit but which in retrospect are probably fair enough, and some very good clues. And help needed with 28ac, please.
Definitions in maroon, underlined. Anagram indicators in italics.
The usual utterly sound and enjoyable crossword from Phi. Nothing at all controversial, so far as I can see.
Although Phi often has a Nina he apparently never uses this as an excuse to have less than 50% checking. OK some people don’t regard this as important, but sticklers like me do. (Some people would replace the word ‘sticklers’ by ‘pedants’.)
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Knut often seems to get me, which at least from my point of view is no problem at all, because as usual this is a pleasant and well-constructed puzzle. There are one or two clues which I’m a little vague about, as outlined below, but no doubt they will be explained and it will all be quite obvious.
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A nice gentle crossword in keeping with the Wednesday traditions laid down by Dac and so ably continued by people like Eccles. It all worked out very comfortably and pleasantly, with the exception of my stupid mistake on 1dn described below.
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I was under the impression that I had blogged Wiglaf more recently than last October, but apparently not. Everyone since then seemed to moan gently about the difficulty. Although I didn’t really do so last October, I’ll do so this time, but not with the intention of criticising, simply to say that I was defeated by 6dn and was rather unsure about some of the others (8ac, 26ac, 28ac) because the words were so apparently unusual. It was hard but enjoyable.
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Every week Phi gives good value for money and this was no exception. As always there are plenty of excellent clues (6ac in particular) and everything was very enjoyable. I found this on the straightforward side for Phi, who is occasionally rather tricky, but even so that statement on the tab SETTERS where I suggest that Phi usually takes about 25 minutes seems to be a thing of the past I’m afraid.
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Back in April I blogged my first Filbert and wrote:
I enjoyed this crossword by a setter whose crosswords I have never blogged. Previous puzzles seem to have been rather difficult. This one was also on the hard side, but there are some very good clues here and it all just about makes sense after solving.
Nothing has changed. Filbert has continued the good work.
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I enjoyed this crossword from Eccles. He uses Occam’s razor in his clueing, which is often very straightforward (but nicely testing in places, as I found to my cost with 27ac).
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This excellent offering from Anglio gave me much trouble, although there are not really any clues that now are incomprehensible. Which is not to say that my explanations will be the correct ones.
Definitions underlined, in maroon I hope. Anagram indicators in italics.