Enigmatic Variations

I found this rather tougher than some of the recent offerings and even thought for some time that I might be forced to throw in the towel. In fact, there were two clues … Read more >>

So no grid numbers this week – just a list of straight clues in alphabetical order of their grid entry, forming an alphabetical jigsaw. After the majority have been entered, the remaining grid … Read more >>

A fairly straightforward puzzle this week, certainly one of Kruger’s easier ones … perhaps to help us meet the one day earlier deadline. What’s more, no extra letters, words or misprints to worry … Read more >>

That title, a grid with a big ‘X’ in the middle, and a preamble indicating that there were eight clashing cells, extra letters in word play would lead to instructions, and a ‘route’ to be … Read more >>

The last few EVs have been pretty tough, so I was glad that Salamanca’s offering was on the easy side. The main bulk of thematic material was found in ten undefined entries. Once … Read more >>

Well – what is the Hobson’s choice of the title to be this week to complete it or to complete it? A fairly standard preamble – additional letters in the subsidiary quotation lead … Read more >>

I thought that this was a tough puzzle from Dysart. The preamble seemed to have so much going on that I needed a bit of a lie down after reading it. That, together … Read more >>

A tasty treat of a puzzle – maybe at the easier end of the EV spectrum, once the nicely topical theme had been cracked. The solver was to find four unclued entries making … Read more >>

I-I-I! Mea culpa! The piercing eye of the acute observer will have noticed that I’m a tiny bit late with this post. Sorry. I was obsessively cataloging my alphabetti spaghetti. I’m sure you’ll … Read more >>

So a complicated preamble – the character referred to as X is to be found in the completed grid, his sweetheart is revealed from 9 asterisked cells, 4 unclued entries comprising 25 letters, … Read more >>

I think Kruger has set some tough puzzles in the past, but this week’s was comparatively easy. The wordplay in every clue had an extra letter not entered in the grid, and these … Read more >>

Several of the classic components of an EV on display here – extra letters/words in clues building a thematic sentence (minus one key word), some entries (approximately half) reversed in the grid, and … Read more >>

Not too tricky this week and a nice note for what was hopefully the last bit of winter. An awful lot of Scots, too (though, as per usual, nothing that any real Scottish … Read more >>

Half the clues are normal and half need alteration. Where a conflict arises, this must be resolved to produce a real word. Simplicity personified for an EV, or so it sounds.  Will half … Read more >>

Typical!! One of my (two) New Year resolutions is to adopt the practice of giving the full clues in my EV blogs. And what happens? I get landed with a puzzle that has … Read more >>