Archive

I’m playing catchup again, almost like some sort of scandalously irresponsible blogger. In my defence, this week’s Beelzebub was blooming hard, and I’d actually finished 1,288 before this one was complete. I’m not … Read more >>

I’m having to finish this one off as I’m blogging. I think that’s more to do with struggling to find the time during the week rather than struggling with the puzzle, as everything … Read more >>

Quite a tough week, and I struggled to finish things off. In fact I failed to do so, because 29 across has me beaten. There seem to be many options in Chambers, though … Read more >>

A much tougher puzzle this week, I thought. I found the right hand side particularly hard going, not least because I’d overconfidently entered THINGUMMYJIG at 1 across, making the long ones at 7 … Read more >>

It appears I’ve been caught out by the very passing of time, and that this Beelzebub is from two weeks ago, so apologies for that. I’ll try to get up to date in … Read more >>

A bit of a rollercoaster for me this week. When 1 across dropped in straight away, I thought this was going to be an easy ride. An hour later the second answer fell … Read more >>

I seem to have managed to complete this with barely a scribble or a note on the paper, so I assume it must have been fairly smooth going. That said, 10 and 24 … Read more >>

About average difficulty this week, I’d say, with some very interesting bits and bobs of language in there. I did have to cheat quite shamelessly to get AMICUS CURIAE and PRECISIVE, though they … Read more >>

All very smooth and pleasing this week. I didn’t get an uninterrupted session to work on this, but instead steadily picked away during the week, which actually worked quite well. I just had … Read more >>

A very tough week, I thought. Plenty of nice long entries to work through though, which was pleasing. I think I’ve managed to explain everything this week, though I can’t claim to have … Read more >>

All very smooth this week, though not unchallenging. There are some particularly nice surface readings, while if someone could confirm 23 down, I’d be grateful. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. … Read more >>

This all seemed fairly straightforward for the most part, with Chambers just required to wrap up a few loose ends. The bit where I am stumped is 25 down. The initial letter is … Read more >>

Quite a challenge this week, I thought. I made steady progress through the week, but eventually had to resort to all kinds of cheating to finish, particularly for some of the longer, rarer … Read more >>