Inquisitor

Ifor is back, solo, after his recent doubling up with Nimrod.   Preamble: All across clues, together with those to down entries in odd columns, are normal, but the latter’s answers are each … Read more >>

Come Into Force by Apt A letter must be inserted into all down and most across clues before solving. In down clues these give the first of five sentences of a statement. In … Read more >>

This week finds Phi in a playful mood. In some across clues the wordplay leads to the answer with an extra letter, in order spelling two surnames. Two others come from down clues … Read more >>

This is Check’s second Inquisitor puzzle following a debut in a run of new setters last year.  Reading the blog of Check’s first puzzle, I could see that one also involved dropping three … Read more >>

I took a look at the list of last year’s Top 20 Inquisitor puzzles in terms of aggregate points awarded to the setters: eXternal and Ifor were almost inseparable at the top, with … Read more >>

A welcome return visit today from Cranberry following last year’s debut, together with a preamble that confused me for rather longer than was strictly necessary, I suspect: Ten thematic solutions each consist of … Read more >>

Fresh from his triumph as most popular Inquisitor setter in 2022, Artix gives us a new puzzle.       The preamble was quite complicated, as follows: Solvers must erase the contents of … Read more >>

A warm welcome to IN.   Preamble: Every answer in each odd-numbered row must be partially jumbled (usually resulting in a non-word) to show a sequence of names. A three-word phrase must be … Read more >>

Moggie by Chalicea   14 supposedly said “13 46”. An extra letter in addition to those needed for the solution is produced in 24 clues. These letters, in clue order, give an instruction … Read more >>

A whole host of instructions to follow in this week’s preamble: A character or (in one case) a word must be removed from each clue before solving: these spell out two instructions. Of … Read more >>

When you see Serpent’s name as a setter, it’s likely that you are going to get an interesting and challenging puzzle.  Serpent certainly lived up to expectations with this week’s Inquisitor.     … Read more >>

Here is the Eclogue duo for the third time in 2022.   Preamble: Clues are presented in normal order. Corrected letters of misprints in the definitions of all clues provide possible creators of … Read more >>

Retrospective by Ploy In six clues, a word has been acted on by either of two straight-line occurrences of a word which will appear in the grid. The action must be undone before … Read more >>