Guardian 25139 – One-Eyed Brummie
One of the events I look forward to every fortnight is the appearance of the latest Private Eye puzzle with its irreverent, risque and outrageous clues. Today, as Brummie, this compiler included some … Read more >>
Guardian
Guardian 25,138 / Rufus
Morning all. This was largely very straightforward, but took us quite a while as we’re never really on Rufus’ wavelength. Still, there were some enjoyable flashes here, 10ac and 8dn being our picks. … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic 569, by Arachne
I found the bottom half of this puzzle went smoothly, but the top half was more challenging. Most of the clues are of exemplary Ximenean form, with clear dictionary definitions; the relatively few … Read more >>
Guardian 25,131 (Sat 2 Oct)/Puck – Arrogate-gate
Solving time: 10½ minutes. The two central answers this week combined to yield ‘British resort’ (’15 19′ in several clues), and there were several such hidden in the grid. Usually when there’s a … Read more >>
Guardian 25,136 / Bonxie
Bonxie has given us a very entertaining and ingeniously constructed puzzle, in which all the across clues pick up the last word[s] in the preceding one. Some clever clues and nice misdirection. Across … Read more >>
Guardian 25,135 – Gordius
A typically mixed bag from Gordius, with some reasonable clues but a lot of what I think is rather loose wordplay, and not much wit to compensate. Specific niggles listed below.. … Read more >>
Guardian 25,134 – Orlando
A pleasant challenge from Orlando with a cute mini-theme around “11”. 14a, 16 and 17 were especially nice. Across 9 HINDEMITH HIND=back + EMI=record company + TH[e] 10 OPRAH rev(HARPO) Marx 11 LATERAL … Read more >>
Guardian 25133 Paul – Do The Bossa Nova
WOW! A follow-on from one of my favourite setters. I am indeed blessed. As to be expected, Paul combines linguistic intrigue with a generous sense of humour, making his puzzles so challenging, yet … Read more >>
Guardian 25132 / Rufus
A tougher than normal puzzle from Rufus, I thought, but perhaps just because of quite a few gaps in my knowledge. (See below.) Very smooth surface readings, as ever – my particular favourite … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic nº568, by Hectence
A straightforward Quiptic this week, with a number of tried and trusted devices, and very few less-known words. A good one for a beginner, my only quibble being 25ac., which I’m not sure … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 87 by Lavatch
Six months have passed, so it must be my turn to blog a Guardian Genius again. I have solved one or two Lavatch puzzles in The Listener so I knew this would … Read more >>
Guardian 25,125 / Araucaria (25 Sept)
I do enjoy Araucaria’s alphabetical jigsaws and this was no exception. I don’t remember one previously where the answers could be entered into the grid in two possible ways but the completed grid … Read more >>
Guardian 25,130 – Arachne
The kiss of the spiderwoman turned out to be not too severe today, with help from easy clues to the long answers at 1ac and 7dn. There’s some quite devious wordplay, though, that … Read more >>
Guardian 25,129 / Araucaria
We’re both rather bleary-eyed today, so apologies for any typos. This was about as easy as Araucaria gets, but had lots of nice touches which made for a light, enjoyable solve. A few … Read more >>
Guardian 25128 / Pasquale
This was a very high quality puzzle from Pasquale, but unfortunately too tough for me complete in the time I have available on a weekday. There are several new words or phrases for … Read more >>