Enigmatic Variations

Oddly, my previous blog, and my final blog for the Inquisitor series, IQ 128, was an Obtrox puzzle. More oddly, it used exactly the same device: two extra letters from the wordplay in … Read more >>

Unlike the last EV I blogged, I made steady progress with this one. Having got ‘ignorance’ twice, but not the author, I might have finished sooner if I possessed an earlier edition of … Read more >>

Initial surprise that the solution to EV862 (which I blogged and submitted) received no correct entry by the closing date!! This was obviously a mistake, with the normal lucky-winner-picker being off sick or … Read more >>

Sometimes it goes like this: I solve lots of clues. There are a few clashes but on the whole answers fit together. I get enough extra letters to work out the entire quotation … Read more >>

This one took me far longer than it should have done! Having fairly confidently put in ‘garnet’ for 36a (though not too happy about cage=net), I had the grid complete, including nine clashes, … Read more >>

Quite a bit going on in this puzzle: a ‘secret’ figure to be discovered from unclued entries, three works to be deduced, two determining how two sets of clues are to be entered, … Read more >>

Quite a tough EV from Samuel, certainly somewhat tougher, for me, than his Listener puzzles I have solved. Although I had plenty of extra letters and I could make out FRIEDRICH I still … Read more >>

A little more difficult than some EVs, with one or two clues holding me up for a short while and one quibble at 31d. I’m not sure I like being given a solving … Read more >>

Four 6×6 squares had to be filled with answers from unnumbered clues. The four mini grids could then be positioned according to four hints hidden in the completed grid. According to the Solving … Read more >>

Lots of jumbles make me nervous. What’s more all the down answers, and there are lots of them, are jumbled. And…there are only six across clues, the remaining entries make up 21 thematic … Read more >>

The preamble indicated that ten clues had an extra word each of which defined ten otherwise unclued entries. A further unclued entry (of three words) was said to explain ‘exactly’ where these entries … Read more >>

In this one, clues were of two types: Position clues, where the clues were numbered but required entry cyclically (ie starting anywhere in the entry space), and Momentum clues which were unnumbered but … Read more >>

A lovely simple puzzle from Salamanca. Clear, straightforward cluing with no misprints or extra words made solving this fairly easy; certainly easier than some of Salamanca’s Listener puzzles. The only devices to throw … Read more >>

I think Ploy must have a fetish for anagrams, or at least that’s the way it seemed to me when I was solving this puzzle. However, having said that, there were some pleasing surfaces, … Read more >>

Clues were given in alphabetical order and had to be entered where they would fit in the grid. When arranged in convetional order the initial letters would give instructions, and you then had … Read more >>