Archive

This seemed to be around the middle of the difficulty range for Beelzebub, with lots of interesting new terms to pick up, and hopefully remember for future reference. I’ve the tiniest of queries … Read more >>

Another solve of two halves for me, almost literally. I made steady progress in the pub on Sunday evening, but returned home with pretty much exactly 50% of the grid filled, in particular … Read more >>

This seemed to be a solve of two halves for me. Progress was quite smooth until the last half dozen or so entries, whereby I had to hit the Chambers search pretty hard … Read more >>

After several weeks of having to blog puzzles that had me wondering aloud whether I’d forgotten how to even solve them, this was a bit of a relief. This was my first unaided … Read more >>

It comes to something when Beelzebub is the easiest of the three Independent crosswords one has to blog on a given weekend. Of course, “easy” is the wrong word, but at least I … Read more >>

After a few rather challenging weeks on the trot, this puzzle seemed a little more tractable. In fact I was back to my old tricks of thinking I’d finished the whole thing unaided, … Read more >>

Another quite tough week, I found. I had barely half the grid filled before reaching for Chambers. That helped with confirming 16, 24 and 28 and things started to fall in quite smoothly … Read more >>

Another very tough week, I found. Let’s hope it’s not just me losing my faculties. This took quite a lot of looking things up on the internet to finish, not least because there … Read more >>

A very challenging puzzle which saw me struggling to finish it throughout the week. Several (for example 1 across and 17 across) took quite some time to work out, but I hope I’ve … Read more >>

Just the one I can’t explain this week, which admittedly is often the case. 31 across has me beaten so I’ve reproduced the clue. *=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Across 1 GATSBY – TSB in … Read more >>

The usual top quality puzzle from Beelzebub. I didn’t find anything too problematic in there this week, and I think I’ve been able to explain them all. *=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Across 1 DIVEST … Read more >>

A very entertaining puzzle this week, I thought. There were plenty of unfamiliar terms and spellings, though they were all well signposted, meaning that while a fair bit of confirmation was needed from … Read more >>

As if this week’s IoS crossword wasn’t enough of a challenge, this seemed to be quite a tough week from Beelzebub too. In fact I’ve made it all the way to blogging day … Read more >>

A two-sitting solve this week, with the Chambers app getting a thorough workout towards the end. Lots of nice long anagrams to work through, which can always be quite satisfying. Of those, the … Read more >>

All relatively straightforward and unambiguous this week, I think, though no less enjoyable for it. *=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Across 1 PABULAR – (B + ULA) in PAR. 7 PUSS – double definition. 10 … Read more >>