Never knowingly undersolved
An entertaining and a varied mix as usual. Thank you Paul. Paul’s puzzles put a smile on my face. ACROSS 1 SHAMMY Leather, fake I say (6) SHAM (fake) and MY (I say, … Read more >>
A nice chewy puzzle from Tramp today, where everything is completely clear if you only read the clues in the right way. Very enjoyable: thanks to Tramp … Read more >>
Thank you to Picaroon for the challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Society tries wrong random number generators (11) SONGWRITERS : Anagram of(… random) [S(abbrev. for “Society”) + TRIES WRONG]. … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28144. A satisfyingly witty crossword from Philistine. Just from the way it seems as I solved it, I found 2D SARI a favorite. ACROSS 1 ASLEEP Please … Read more >>
Brummie provides an enjoyable challenge today, all fairly clued, with just a couple of less familiar words. Brummie’s puzzles often have a theme. All I can see here is a mini-thread at 1ac, … Read more >>
A tricky and fun start to the week, with neat wordplay and surfaces, and with quite a bit of general knowledge required. Favourites were 14ac, 16ac, 26ac, 29ac, and 22dn. Thanks to Pan
Thanks to Beale, who returns after a long absence of over 3 years. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Accessories worn with kind of shirt — striking on first sight (9) … Read more >>
Having blogged a Paul puzzle the day before, I assumed that the fairly regular pattern of my monthly Saturday blog coinciding with Paul’s usually regular fortnightly appearance in that slot had been temporarily … Read more >>
A quicker solve than expected from a Friday Nutmeg, with some very neat cluing and a few trickier bits of parsing. Favourites were 10ac, 15ac, 26ac, 5dn, and 20dn.
Quite a tricky one, as usual with Boatman, not helped by the unfriendly grid, with its almost isolated four sub-grids. There seems to be a bit of a theme of modern (usually business-related) … Read more >>
A gentle puzzle with an “aard” to spot theme?
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28137. The keystone clue is 17A RHINO, used in other clues in the slang sense of money. At times, the puzzle seemed to be an exercise in … Read more >>
Vulcan starts the week with a typical Monday medley of charades, anagrams and double and cryptic [some more so than others] definitions. There are a couple of old favourites at 27ac and 7dn, … Read more >>
A delightful Quiptic from Carpathian, just right for new and improving solvers, in my opinion. To that end, I have tried to give full explanations of all the clues, but if you are … Read more >>
We’d probably solved 10 clues before realising the “translation” from numbers to letter that was needed, even though in retrospect it should have been one of the first things we thought of! I … Read more >>