Never knowingly undersolved
A Playfair code this week – a bit like Marmite you either love them or hate them and neither are available at Tesco. Some unusual definitions were probably the hardest part of the … Read more >>
I took this puzzle on a golfing holiday to Portugal with the intention of tackling it in quiet moments by the pool. For one reason or another, I never got near the pool, … Read more >>
In a crescendo of coincidence, or a planned plethora(?), Serpent/Jack has had four puzzles out in the last month or so, across four different outlets – a Saturday Indie, which I also had the … Read more >>
The POTPOURRI in question in EV1243 is, the preamble tells us, made up of seven ingredients (a further one is ‘controversially omitted’).
Extra letters in the wordplay spell out an instruction relating to a game – find its venue, fill in the participants and the Name of the Game. Could this be football related? – … Read more >>
This was Kruger’s third EV of the year (and if you want more of this fine setter, he had his third Inquisitor of the year last Saturday). Here we had some extra wordplay … Read more >>
Ifor offers us some MASS TRANSIT this week – we could be ‘going underground’, with the Jam; we could be ‘on the buses’ with Reg Varney; or we could be on the EV … Read more >>
Half of the clues have an extra letter coming from the wordplay, and the other half have an extra letter in the clue itself. The former ‘spell out an interpretation to be placed on the grid. The latter ‘spell out what must be highlighted in the completed grid, and why five of the 17 cells involved must be distinguished from the other 12.’ The completed grid will also have ‘a thematic comment that identifies the distinguishing feature’.
How very curious.
A puzzle by Eclogue this week – four cells containing clashes, the wordplay in each clue having an extra letter and the first line of a verse to find. If that’s not enough … Read more >>
Oxymoron puzzles vary in difficulty from ‘not too tricky’ to ‘fiendish’, and I wondered what degree of difficulty the gods had given me this week. But before I go any further, apologies for … Read more >>
With the Olympics starting at approximately the same time as this puzzle’s submission date, is Nutmeg going to give us some sporting records to decipher…will this be a marathon or a sprint?…or perhaps … Read more >>
Omitted letters from across clues – unusually along with ‘what has happened to them’ – spell out ‘an extract from a quotation’. The puzzle’s title is from the symbolised RESPONSE that is to be highlighted in the completed grid.
Puzzle 1234 – whilst not a round number a nice one. This brings a puzzle from Gila with a portrait to be found. Additional words in clues interspersed with extra letters in wordplay … Read more >>
This week I have to grapple with Shark. He can be one tough setter, predominantly creating D-grade puzzles for Magpie. (FYI D-grades are very tough, but just short of E-grades which are impossible!) … Read more >>
On first inspection of SOMETHING ISN’T THERE, I had a touch of the Rumsfelds – there are ‘known unknowns’, and there might well be some ‘unknown unknowns’… Will Samuel be using his weapons of … Read more >>