Inquisitor

It was quite difficult to make progress at first, but the “extra letters in wordplay” phrase started to emerge from CIANS suggesting “politicians”, and QUISLING as a possible unclued answer. Looking up “politicians” … Read more >>

Superb stuff from Phi as usual. Impeccable clues and a nice theme with a bit of work needed to fill in the middle five rows. I thought it was quite dificult enough without the … Read more >>

Schadenfreude is one of the most regular Inquisitor setters.  I have blogged a number of his puzzles in the past and all have proved challenging.  This one was no exception.  It took me … Read more >>

Samuel’s first puzzle as an Inquisitor, but he’s a setter familiar to Listener solvers, notably with #3975 and more recently with #4038.  Twelve thematic clues are of the “Definition & Letter-Mixture” sort. In … Read more >>

This wasn’t a particularly entertaining puzzle for a non-cricketing, non-English person.  Though I have to admit that I, unwittingly, asked an Australian friend for assistance with the dénouement.  Or should I say ex-friend?  … Read more >>

As indicated by the need to post a placeholder, I found this puzzle tough. We were told that: seven down answers needed processing in accordance with instructions from a Letters Latent quotation providing … Read more >>

Viking is a new Inquisitor setter for me, but a bit of research indicates that there is a Viking who plays a major part in crosswords in another place, so the pedigree looked … Read more >>

My thanks to Ho for this one as neither Hi nor Ba could do it. We found it much harder than Tennyson’s Maud and the poets a few weeks ago, though Ho didn’t! There … Read more >>

Back from walking in the Pyrenees – let’s hope this puzzle isn’t as controversial as #133!  Three (unspecified) answers are to be modified before entry, and answers to the eight italicised clues each … Read more >>

This has to be one of the toughest Inquisitors I have ever tackled. I think I have the grid correct though I’m not sure about some of the thematic material. Solving time: several … Read more >>

This is a good example of a surprise you can sometimes get from thematic puzzles – that an idea hasn’t been used before. I even wonder if this is what the title is … Read more >>

The preamble stated that the the puzzle commemorated significant anniversaries of two related events which occurred exactly 50 years apart. Single letters or words had to be removed from all of the 40 … Read more >>

Excellent puzzle from Charybdis – no extra words or letters in the clues, just a nice conceit in his letter from the editor. This was most confusing at first, but the meaning fell … Read more >>

Another new blogger … and a new setter to boot – double whammy? (I’ll be walking in the Pyrenees when this should come out, so no response from me anytime soon.)  The entry … Read more >>

Well, here goes with my first blog. I picked up my Independent with some trepidation but as soon as I turned to The Inquisitor and saw that it was by Phi, I breathed … Read more >>