Never knowingly undersolved
The boss giving himself a Saturday outing today, with a puzzle that had me slapping answers in at a great rate. 1 down, 9 across went in with hardly any thought. Of course … Read more >>
It is Friday and the compiling slot is occupied by Phi, as one might expect. I found this one moderately difficult, in that I didn’t sail through it but nor did it give … Read more >>
I think this is an Independent daily debut for Serpent today. Serpent has appeared twice in the Inquisitor series where I enjoyed blogging his puzzle with a Cluedo theme. I … Read more >>
For some time this week I have been struggling to produce anything like a half-decent clue in a certain clue-setting competition. Yet Quixote, who sets several crosswords weekly, produces smooth and efficient clues that certainly look as if they are written easily. There is seldom any strain or ‘well, I’m not sure I’d have done that …’ at any point.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
A novel theme to today’s puzzle from Scorpion – one with which we are all probably familiar without really knowing why. What is it about 17ac that makes it a measure for the size … Read more >>
I’ve not come across Gila much before but this was a solid offering which was generally at the easier end of the spectrum. Not sure if the name refers to the Gila monster, a type of lizard – perhaps the compiler will enlighten us.
I remeber when the Independent on Sunday puzzle was a gentle stroll after lunch- not any more! I found this quite tricky. Thanks to Anglio for an interesting puzzle.
Well it’s a puzzle from Donk this week and a grid layout that I regard as one of the hardest with almost four distinct mini grids with minimal overlap. And yes it proved … Read more >>
It’s Friday, it’s Phi so all’s well with the world. There were a number of literary allusions in the clues and in the grid today but I’m not sure whether … Read more >>
Morph has given us his usual very sound and pleasant crossword. It was always my impression that Morph’s clues were on the wordy side, but I counted them (yes I really did, I have to admit) and the average word-length of each clue is only 7, which compares quite favourably with Dean Mayer’s last Sunday Times puzzle of 6.8. I had always thought that Dean’s clues were particularly pithy, but this one was not all that far behind. Anyway, perhaps it’s a bit silly to focus on length: quality is what it’s about, and there was plenty of quality here.
What can we say? Another excellent Dac, which for some reason we found slightly tougher than normal. As usual, excellent surfaces, with an ingenious definition at 1d. We were delighted that our favourite … Read more >>
Crosophile has served up this morning’s cruciverbal fare. I enjoyed this puzzle, finding it a challenge but not an insurmountable one. There was no point at which the solution suddenly revealed itself to … Read more >>
Daedalus and I keep running into each other on Fifteensquared. This is his ninth Indy puzzle and I’ve blogged five of them. I’m still not warming to his style – I find it … Read more >>
A fairly rare Sunday outing from Alchemi, the first since January, as far as I can tell. My last couple in included 25 across, which doesn’t seem all that difficult and is rather … Read more >>
Enjoyable fare from Monk today…some nice surface readings and clever clueing… …and a Nina to boot, although I only spotted it once the grid was completed and I was preparing to blog it. … Read more >>