Never knowingly undersolved
This week it’s another chance to blog one of my favourite setters. Here, we had to change the appearance of ten answers with nine clues containing a word or phrase which would help … Read more >>
Hmmm…a ‘burnt offering’…not quite the 5th of November, so unlikely to be Guy Fawkes…the (reasonably brief) preamble tells us that in ‘most’ clues the wordplay will lead to an extra letter, which will … Read more >>
Ah, a game from Jacques to pass the time on a Sunday. Well, I’m game. What its name? ‘Name Game’. A shame my fame came… ah, phooey. I’ve never been any good at writing these intros.
Some transformation of answers in this week’s offering from Salamanca and a connection with John, Paul, George and Ringo perhaps. So what cunning device has Salamanca employed to transform the answers. It took … Read more >>
Kea’s puzzles are normally at the trickier end of the spectrum, certainly those in the Listener series. Time would tell whether I was in for a hard time this week or not. My … Read more >>
Well, belay there ye landlubbers – Cap’n Samuel has a piratical offering in celebration of ‘International Speak Like A Pirate Day‘ (an event which, I have to admit, had passed me by until I set … Read more >>
I am reliably informed that the word ‘ambiguity’ comes from the Latin ambi-, eaning both ways, and agere, meaning to drive. Will this puzzle take the easy road or will it drive the solver crazy?
This week – extra letters in the wordplay spelling out a line form a verse and its source. Two further lines from the verse then must be applied to the completed grid to … Read more >>
A seemingly straightforward puzzle from Kcit this week. There were only four misplaced clues to identify, each lacking a common definition. The absence of misprints and missing/extra letters in clues made it a … Read more >>
What does it all ‘mean’? Do I have the ‘means’ to solve this puzzle? The preamble is fairly clear to start with – 1A and 41A are thematic, with 41A being a description of … Read more >>
O me miserum! Mea culpa and de gustibus non est disputandum! Late again! My apologies to Kruger and to all 15^2 readers. I hereby pledge that if another blog is late then I will donate £20 to some good cause or other. But for now, on with the blog!
So this week’s fare comprises 12 unclued symmetrical placed entries around the perimeter and 6 clues without definitions (with the word play missing the letter that intersects the perimeter) – otherwise a straight crossword – so … Read more >>
This week we had the first solo puzzle from Samuel since he took over the EV editorship. (In case you didn’t know, he made up one third of Samphiry, responsible for EV 1079 … Read more >>
In ‘ATOL’, the preamble tells us that a ‘specific’ 10D of nine letters is formed by the addition of seven letters to answers to seven clues which are not ‘fully clued’. Each addition … Read more >>
A monster preamble this time – and all the excitement associated with a grid of many colours.
What we learn is that the puzzle’s subject plays 4 roles and is known by a particular pseudonym to Enigmatic Variations solvers. These roles and pseudonym are given respectively by corrections to lights and extra letters from subsidiary indications. Further background to the roles is given by 2 normal clues per role. Phew!