Never knowingly undersolved
Matches occur in 6 rows with all clues containing 2 definitions – the ones with clashes only giving the wordplay to the common letters and not the ones that need to be added … Read more >>
The initial grid is suffering from a lack of Education. Sounds familiar when I watch politicians on the news trying to understand simple maths and science. Several answers were too short for the … Read more >>
Hello all. We have another gem from the late Oxymoron, which I very much enjoyed. The preamble reads: 13 thematic answers (10 clued without definitions) appearing in a CITS LPTE are to … Read more >>
A delightful puzzle from Kruger, whose monicker is reminiscent of a famous ‘park’ in South Africa…
“Clues are normal and in conventional order; bars (which would not be symmetrical) must not be shown. Numbers given are answer lengths. Three cells each containing more than one letter must have each group replaced by a symbol. In the completed grid 20 cells containing two names and one letter showing a position in a sequence must be highlighted and three letters italicised; the centre cell is left empty. Solvers must empty six further cells which allow BAND TO reset, leaving real words. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
An interesting preamble. Nine entries to thematically treat and 9 clues also. The treatments lead to a description of what has been done and an occupation. This should allow a person to be … Read more >>
Hi all, I hope this blog finds you well. Having left the puzzle until far later than is wise, I was very relieved and grateful to find an EV which I could manage … Read more >>
Just like London buses, you wait ages for a Piccadilly to blog (EV 949 in 2011, EV 1291 in 2017), and then three come along in quick succession (EV 1419 in February this year, EV 1431 in May and now EV 1443). Where is this particular bus taking us?…
“Ten answers have been affected by an IT FEATURE and must be amended before entry in one of two ways. For the remaining clues, half contain a superfluous word which must be relocated into one of the clues in the other half before solving. Numbers in brackets refer to entry lengths. Letters in the four shaded cells can be arranged to provide an acronym of the IT FEATURE, which must be written in full below the grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended; two answers are abbreviations.”
Quite a cryptic preamble this week – clues are normal and then a number of extracts to be found – works by the unclued entry. This entry is then to be changed to … Read more >>
Hi everyone, I hope you are well. I’m very happy indeed that this series has escaped the axe (for now) and would like to thank all those who stepped up in support – … Read more >>
A pretty complicated preamble, and a pretty complicated solve! Could ‘PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE’ be a (wishful) reference to lockdown life for many of us?!
It would appear that The Telegraph intends to discontinue the Enigmatic Variations series of barred cryptic puzzles in August. We must try to prevent this from happening so please read the new article … Read more >>
“The left-hand and bottom perimeter cells represent empty supermarket shelves which must be ‘restocked’ (making new words) with the initial letters of the first 12 words of a song. One of its subsequent lyrics explains the specific item that was UNDERSTOCKED. Solvers must write the title below the grid and highlight the two artists (two blocks of cells in straight lines) responsible. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
Straight clues and 9 clashes to find and resolve into one of two options based on three answers to clue the correct option. Definitely one for lovers of crossword clues rather than those … Read more >>