Enigmatic Variations

I normally leave the occasional rant to my other blogging duties at Listen With Others, but I’m feeling a bit mischievous as I write this. What I want to know is why do … Read more >>

I ‘missed the boat’ at first on this one – thinking it was referring to ‘grockles’, a mildly derogatory term for incomer, or tourist, in some parts of the UK, so I was … Read more >>

Unless I have missed something, always a possibility, I think there is a (minor) flaw in one of the thematic groups (see below). The initial (clued) grid fill was relatively quick and straightforward thanks to … Read more >>

Back to a complex preamble again this week. The solver is tasked with identifying 1ac and then must act as they would to correct a PONDLIFE deficiency – in the process providing 33ac. … Read more >>

Hurrah! There are no extra letters or clashes to contend with in this puzzle, so thanks to Syd for that. It makes writing the blog so much easier. Instead there are three ‘Cluster’ … Read more >>

Another relatively easy week. I fear that I am being lulled, as Bertie Wooster might have put it, into an f. s. of s. Although there were no messages to be constructed from … Read more >>

A smaller grid this week – only 121 blank squares, instead of the normal 169. Will this translate into a shorter solving time? The preamble offers a slight cause for concern – if the quotation … Read more >>

Well another shortish preamble this week, put relatively succinctly, the  aim is to find a quotation to fill two answers and the diagonal by discovering the unclued work it is from, then determine how this is … Read more >>

This was a nice straightforward puzzle from Loda, with six members of a group appearing as unclued entries in the grid and two others (not part of the group) appearing as extra words … Read more >>

The full 225 letters this week (unusual for an EV recently?), so value for money from Kruger, and more to blog for your’s truly…but, to paraphrase from John Cleese’s ‘great actor’ in the … Read more >>

I wonder if I was alone in finding this tough. In retrospect, the preamble wasn’t unnecessarily misleading. Nor at any time did I think the clueing unfair. Still, for me this EV was one heck … Read more >>

So a relatively simple preamble this week. Two unclued answers, some answers that don’t fill their available space and some UPWARD MOTION to fill the spaces at the end. All the clues are … Read more >>

Here we are with Oxymoron again (Schadenfreude’s EV pseudonym). A pretty straightforward puzzle this time: eight clues with an extra word with first and last letters spelling out a hint, and the barred-off … Read more >>

An ‘EV’ puzzle in more ways than one, as it turned out! Bit of a complicated preamble – the solver is searching for a ‘gang of four’ who aren’t actually in the grid, … Read more >>

Bonjour! Un petit peu less ceremony with this one – just ten ‘thematically entered’ answers and four unclued entries. Still, there’s some grid highlighting to be done, which always gives one a pleasant … Read more >>