Enigmatic Variations

As far as I can see, Hugo is a new setter, so good luck to him with this puzzle. As far as I’m concerned, he’s off to a good start with lots of … Read more >>

In this puzzle you were required to deduce the title of a work by a figure (why that word was used I know not; it sounded a bit cryptic, but turned out not … Read more >>

I made good progress during the first session, solving most of the clues fairly quickly but was held up for a while at the end by 16a and, particularly, 51a. With these resolved … Read more >>

A relatively simple preamble: eight answers require modification based on a quotation and author running round the perimeter. Although some parts of the puzzle were a bit tricky, it helped seeing ?IRS?????LB? in … Read more >>

I printed this puzzle off on the day of its publication but set it aside due to work pressures. I intended to take it on holiday with me to Netherlands and Belgium. An … Read more >>

The subsidiary indication in each clue leads to an extra letter. These letters indicate the source of two questions (the second of which WAS rhetorical) and reveal a recent and unresolved problem (from … Read more >>

I didn’t know whether to expect a tricky puzzle from MynoT, or an easy one. He seems to be a setter who can produce varying levels of difficulty but, this being EV, I’ll … Read more >>

As seems usual for me these days the preamble turned out to be harder to follow than the puzzle. In the end it was a fairly straightforward puzzle once the penny had dropped. … Read more >>

Completing this puzzle was not helped by the enumeration being incorrect in 13a and 19a and, unless I have got something seriously wrong, by the preamble referring to “a famous artist or performer” … Read more >>

Luckily for me, a fairly straightforward offering from Kcit this week. I got back from golfing hols on Sunday, and everything has bunched up nicely, including some crosswords that need solving and blogging … Read more >>

The preamble to this puzzle confused me at first: the anagram or homonym of the required word. The answer? Indicated? Unindicated? Either way what was the rest of the clue doing? After over-analysing … Read more >>

A rather tough offering from Lato this week with several steps needed before the grid could be completed. At the end of the initial session I had all the normal answers entered, along … Read more >>

A quick comment that I’m glad I didn’t have last weeks blog, What You’ve Got to Do by Syd Lexis; it looks like I made a complete Horlicks of the final step! Luckily, … Read more >>

With the preamble stating that there were 5 normal clues and 5 lines breaking up two misspelt words in the quotation there was clearly a connection. I found the clues easy enough (except … Read more >>

A reasonably quick solve for this one, then a lot of head scratching trying to parse 17d and 26d. This was greatly helped once I had realised the theme and could complete the … Read more >>