Never knowingly undersolved
As the US election hangs scarily in the balance, a welcome diversion from Maskarade. A few bits of general knowledge required, and there are a couple of answers that are perhaps a bit … Read more >>
A themed effort from Qaos this morning, My original preamble seems to have disappeared, so from memory… The theme of today’s puzzle is the author Stephen King, generally considered a horror writer, although … Read more >>
Anto divides his time these days (or the editor does it for him) between the Quiptic and the daily Grauniad cryptic. This was a fine example of the former, with some pleasing anagrams … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28280. A very quick solve, with a few quibbles. 11A held me up looking for a cryptic element, but I cannot find any. ACROSS 1 BITE THE … Read more >>
A ‘jigsaw’ puzzle from Kite this month – with the pieces all needing a bit of additional work before entry…
This was a typically clever and amusing puzzle from Puck. I found some of the parsing here quite tricky to work out, but it was definitely satisfying to do so. Thanks, Puck! There’s … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28278. Quite a hard crossword for a time when changes of daylight savings time robs me of an hour’s worth of solving, with a couple of definitely … Read more >>
A fairly tough challenge from Paul this morning, especially in the parsing department. This was another middle-of-the-night solve for me, with the parsing left until the morning, in the hope that light would … Read more >>
A fun puzzle – I particularly liked 9ac, 21ac, 22ac, 2dn, 18dn, and 22dn. Thanks to Brendan. …hard to miss the theme around Shakespeare’s Othello, with extra links to theatre more generally and … Read more >>
Nutmeg in gentle mode, but with all her usual wit and elegance. Very nice. No theme or Nina that I can see, but I’d be happy to be corrected on that. Thanks to … Read more >>
An enjoyable solve from Pan this morning: mostly “easy when you know how”. As always, Pan provides concise clues with some lovely surfaces: my favourite was 1d. There are lots of common crossword … Read more >>
Apologies for the late post – I wrote this blog a couple of hours ago, but sent it to Fifteensquared as a draft by mistake. An enjoyable Monday morning stroll… … which proves … Read more >>
A biscuit-themed puzzle from Paul this week. In his email to subscribers, Paul mentioned that this puzzle was inspired by the actions of a three-year old – “crumbs, that was embarrassing”: presumably one … Read more >>
Thanks to Vlad for this puzzle, which contains some topical references. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1. Plant rejected a kind of strike after one fellow sacked (7) FUCHSIA : Reversal … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28271. This gives me the impression of an exercise in envelopes, very well varied, with a few double definitions thrown in (of course, it is actually more … Read more >>