Never knowingly undersolved
Serpent has been around for a year or two now, but I don’t think I have had the pleasure before. It seems that most people have found him on the hard side, but it looks as if I’ve had a fairly gentle introduction to him.
More &lits or near-&lits than I remember in a daily crossword. Clever of Serpent to get so many in.
Kairos steps in for Dac this week – and we found this quite difficult to get to grips with. Having written up the blog we are now wondering why? Was it the … Read more >>
Knut has produced this week’s Tuesday teaser, which I imagine had many of us reaching for our dictionaries! This was quite a workout and not just because I didn’t know most of the … Read more >>
Well, I don’t know what’s happened to today’s scheduled blogger. Had I been scheduled to cover this one (ie had I not been standing in at the last minute with the consequential time … Read more >>
My second Peter blog and a nice gentle start to the crosswording week
Another good Sunday puzzle from Hoskins. This one all fell into place in a straightforward manner, without any obvious sticking points. As such, there’s very little I can add, though that isn’t in … Read more >>
Well, what can we say? We really struggled to get started and wondered whether we would have to ‘phone a friend’ or admit defeat. In the end it was definitely one of those puzzles … Read more >>
This must be the smallest 15×15 crossword ever published in a national daily, having only 20 clues. The Times Quick Cryptic, which is 13×13, seldom has so few clues, but really this is one of the few 13×13 cryptics of 20 clues, with some answers lengthened. Four long acrosses and four long downs are the reason for the brevity. Phi has managed to make it all look sensible enough, though, and it must have been quite difficult to fit those long answers in.
As usual all very pleasant, as we have come to expect from Phi.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
It took us a little while to get into Tees’ offering today, but in preparing the blog, we’re not quite sure why. Apart from a couple of references that we had to check … Read more >>
Although it is the last Wednesday of the month, when we might expect a stand-in compiler for him, Dac is here nonetheless with his latest puzzle, fidèle au poste! I actually found this … Read more >>
Radian provides us with one of those themed puzzles where you don’t need to spot the theme. . The theme was digging for archaeological evidence or buried treasure with many entries … Read more >>
Quite a tough puzzle in places with some neatly deceptive clues.
Today is Mothering Sunday, and I need a cuddle from our mam after having to solve and parse this offering from Daedalus. More importantly, I need help from you kind folk to parse … Read more >>
A pleasingly round-numbered puzzle from Klingsor today. Klingsor does crop up on Saturdays fairly regularly, though without wishing to sound over-confident, this one seemed relatively tractable for that day of the week. In … Read more >>
A fairly straightforward solve from Phi this week. For once the theme was so obvious, we couldn’t help but think that maybe there were more thematic entries than the obvious ones … Read more >>