Enigmatic Variations

In my last blog, I suggested that very easy puzzles should have an ‘easy’ rating to attract solvers who would normally give the EV puzzle a wide berth. I think it worth adding … Read more >>

A fellow EV blogger recently mused on the ‘blogger’s nightmare’ of being allocated a puzzle he/she can’t get to the bottom of. Well, here’s an example (unless the penny drops some time between writing … Read more >>

I did not expect to be covering this puzzle and so I am writing this nearly two weeks after solving and my memory of the Sunday before last is now rather dim. I … Read more >>

So an impassable door this week, 23 misprints to spell out a quotation then find the quotation’s author and highlight AN IMPASSABLE DOOR. Chambers is defined as the only reference, so, logically, the quotation … Read more >>

The first line of a verse and a 6-letter word are to be identified and highlighted here with the help of four unclued entries. There has been the occasional discussion at the Crossword … Read more >>

 With ‘pencil recommended, at first’ and ‘upheaval’ threatened, I braced myself for some serious re-engineering of the grid post-solving…but in the end there was a relatively simple, but cleverly constructed, twist to the tale… … Read more >>

This brought back happy memories of the very first EV that I completed. That one also used this format (splitting the grid into quarters). It wasn’t that long ago, so if you’ve been … Read more >>

Straightforward clues this week – no twist of any sort. Then, find a quotation, its source and the real name of the writer  – Sounds easy but may be “Un peu difficile”, if … Read more >>

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 >>