Inquisitor

A fairly short preamble for this puzzle – "In each clue, the wordplay has one letter too many or one letter too few.  In clue order, Down letters instruct solvers what to highlight … Read more >>

The preamble told us: In x clues, there is a misprint of one letter in the definition.  The correct letter is y places back alphabetically. In y clues, the wordplay generates the answer … Read more >>

Four members of a thematic group can be identified in the completed grid by amending the contents of one unchecked cell in each of four entries, one of which so it contains two … Read more >>

Despite the designation “by Schadenfreude” in the title, the puzzle element of this turned out to be quite straightforward. The preamble was mercifully brief, telling us that a title would appear in the … Read more >>

Looking at the Inquisitor index, I see that this is Ploy’s sixth puzzle in the Inquisitor series.  I have been blogging Inquisitors about once a month since November 2007 but I haven’t blogged … Read more >>

A fairly painless puzzle this week. The route from 1 to 38 [unclued] may be deduced from the letters that are ignored in the wordplay to 12 clues together with the other unclued … Read more >>

A reasonably straightforward rubric for a change: Two unclued entries must be thematically modified to give two others, and an appropriate word in a dozen down clues must be treated likewise before the … Read more >>

Struggled with this one Nimrod. Bit of a quiz if you ask me! We had to find four items which are members of an extensive list “each unique in the same way” (Huh?). … Read more >>

A 2.5 km walk in the rain, back along the Rochdale Canal, to get the papers, and 4 km to rejoin the narrow boat – dedication. (I’m filling in for Duncan this week, … Read more >>

Not so hard this week, but enjoyable for all that. And a deft handling of the thematic elements, so thanks to Charybdis for this puzzle.   The entry at 25a & a jumbling … Read more >>

Wow, what a long, convoluted preamble: This puzzle features eight pairs. Six thematic entries are anagrams of a pair member; six others are possible associations of the other member. Clues to these comprise … Read more >>

Baffling rubric until the penny eventually dropped after four days of cogitation. This difficult crossword concerned a “meeting” between A Crosse and D Owen. The difficulty arose from a number of sources. There … Read more >>

This puzzle had a fairly long preamble: "In every clue but one, a letter must be removed from the definition part before solving.  In clue order, these spell out the beginning of a … Read more >>

Quite a lot going here, and a grade 4 workout. Five works by x to be discovered …   Original letters in down misprinted definitions {novel} spell out the first. Replacing x‘s initials … Read more >>

The rubric reads: In several cases the answers to across and down clues clash as to the presence or absence of a letter – lengths in brackets refer to the number of spaces … Read more >>