Never knowingly undersolved
Thank you, Phil Ashling for filling in so admirably for me last Tuesday when I was among 1,500 having a celebration lunch in a remote village in Fujian, China. We, all surnamed Yap, … Read more >>
This was a delightful way to start the week. We don’t think we have done a Pan puzzle before but we will keep an eye out from now on. The surface reading of … Read more >>
A fairly typical Rufus mix of anagrams and double and cryptic definitions, with the usual silky-smooth surfaces, mostly straightforward, which is no bad thing at this busy time, with a couple of [for … Read more >>
A quick skim through the clues made me think I might not enjoy this theme much, because I didn’t expect to know some of the answers. ‘North American food’ didn’t sound like my … Read more >>
Apologies for the late posting, and the brevity – I am about to have minor surgery. Across 1. Very cold parrot starting a course of action (6) POLICY A charade of POL[ly] (‘parrot … Read more >>
Yes, it’s me for the second time this week, standing in for scchua, who is away. It was a bit of a surprise to get Paul today after Araucaria yesterday, but a pleasant … Read more >>
What looked for a while like a typically Araucarian mixture of obscurity and straightforwardness, with a few liberties thrown in, turned out to have more going on than I realised. Definitions are underlined. … Read more >>
Uncle Yap is away, so it’s my pleasure to do a Guardian blog of a Brendan crossword. Brendan has been reading his horoscope it appears, the signs of the Zodiac appear thoughout as … Read more >>
I’m not usually one of Rufus’s biggest fans, but I enjoyed this one, as I thought it had a nice variety of clue types, and as always some excellent surface readings. As usual, … Read more >>
A competent puzzle with a good range of clue types. Most of the definitions given are from Chambers 11th Edition. Most of the standard abbreviations used in the wordplay are shown with the … Read more >>
An excellent puzzle: cleverly constructed and with about the right level of difficulty for a Saturday, we thought. The rubric for this puzzle read “Across solutions are 11, when it comes to the … Read more >>
As long as you know the references, I think this is at the easier end of Araucaria’s output.
‘Mixed bag’ is a term that has been applied more than once to Gordius puzzles, by me and others – and here’s another: some good clues but, as so often, I have quibbles … Read more >>
I took a while to get started on this, but one of my earlier answers was 11, which led me to 22 and 4,26, after which the rest followed without too much difficulty. … Read more >>
It has been a long time since I last blogged The Don who remains faithfully Ximenean and fair in his clues. Today’s offering is just as entertaining and delightful as expected. This weekend, … Read more >>