Never knowingly undersolved
Morph has clearly flagged up a theme with all the references in italics in the clues. The theme though is completely irrelevant to all but one of the clues. I … Read more >>
Yet another new setter in the Indy, and in my opinion a good debut puzzle. One or two I have struggled to parse, but I’m sure help will be forthcoming. What did you … Read more >>
The Peter/Pierre combo again hits the Sunday Indy slot. Lots of well-constructed clues and some clever misdirections. Bravo, Peter. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition (xxxx) anagram anagrind = … Read more >>
The middle of May and, if my ageing memory is right, I think my first blog of a puzzle by Hob. And quite a tricky one it proved to be. Some tough clues. … Read more >>
Another Phi-day and another Phi, although we have to say that this didn’t feel like a ‘normal’ Phi although we cannot identify quite why. We were somewhat puzzled by the wordplay in … Read more >>
Serpent has provided today’s cruciverbal challenge, with what might be described as a semi-ghost theme. The entry at 17 reveals a (ghost) theme running through all of the across solutions, not just 20, … Read more >>
I think this is Dutch’s second Independent crossword following his debut in February I note that Dutch is using a 36 clue grid so we are all getting very good value. … Read more >>
What we expect from Knut nowadays: a very pleasant solve and nothing very controversial I think.
My first blog of a Gila puzzle. This might be a bit easier than a typical Gila. Thanks to Gila. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 A panel of judges trying … Read more >>
A challenging workout from Monk, with a couple of nice touches…
Phi has produced this Friday’s puzzle, as he does the puzzle on most Fridays. I actually found this crossword towards the harder end of the Phi spectrum, in that I really struggled with … Read more >>
Scorpion set today’s puzzle. Thursday is often a theme day. Although there was a theme you didn’t have to know it. Most of the across entries are the surnames of … Read more >>
An excellent puzzle from Eccles with soundness (I think) coupled with very pleasing surfaces. I found this very hard to begin with — none of the Acrosses fell at first sight — and then there were plenty of accessible Downs. Finally I stopped, having spent ages and failed on 22ac and 25ac. One of them is a (to me) dreaded cryptic definition, so there weren’t the usual two ways to the answer and I couldn’t see the required one; the other one (25ac) is still a bit of a mystery; no doubt someone will explain it better than I can.
A fun puzzle from Hoskins today – mostly fairly straightforward, but with a few that got us thinking. We only realised that there was more to the puzzle when we had moreorless … Read more >>