Archive

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 >>

Definitely at the easier end of the Beelzebub spectrum. I fairly raced through this, and it might have been an unaided, single-sitting finish had I not had to check a couple in Chambers. … Read more >>

A tough week for me, though I made life difficult for myself by inventing a word for 1 across and writing it in without thinking to even check. Well, all the letters of … Read more >>

An interesting grid this week, with quite a few short entries and 90° rotational symmetry. I did feel the grid rendered the four quarters of the grid a little isolated, making one or … Read more >>

This seemed a very tough week, and it has taken me until today to get things finished off. It didn’t help that the four longer entries put up quite a struggle, which made … Read more >>

Another week whereby about two thirds went in unaided, and then the rest put up quite the struggle. I believe I have at least managed to parse everything this week. There are some … Read more >>

Quite a challenge this week, and browsing the list of answers, it’s not hard to see why. I made good steady progress at first, filling about two thirds of the grid unaided. A … Read more >>

Well I never. Another unaided finish, though admittedly it took until Thursday and there was some very tentative guesswork involved. Not all of which I’ve 1 down-ly checked in Chambers, so it’s quite … Read more >>

Perhaps a little harder than last week. I managed about two thirds unaided, then hit Chambers pretty hard for the rest. I don’t know whether this one was set by Phi, but either … Read more >>

A very enjoyable puzzle, and I was pleased to finish this one unaided, which isn’t something I manage often. There does seem to be some correlation between taking Beelzebub to the pub and … Read more >>

Generally quite mid-paced in terms of difficulty, I found, though there are a couple left to explain this week, at 14 across and 20 down. *=anagram, []=dropped, <=reversed. Across 1 KEEL – LEEK<. … Read more >>

I’m a little behind with my Beelzebub postings, for which I apologise. This was almost literally a puzzle of two halves. I took Beelzebub to my favourite pub in Camberwell, as is my … Read more >>

It’s hard to describe this puzzle as anything other than vintage Beelzebub. I managed about two thirds unaided before turning to Chambers to confirm things like YELLOW meaning “sensational”, and TELEGA. Finally a … Read more >>

Goodness me, this was a tough one. I’ve been working on it until today, and I’m not even quite finished now. 9 down and 15 across remain to be solved, while 21 across … Read more >>