Inquisitor

I nearly didn’t finish this puzzle. I was a page turn from giving up despite having completed the grid. I had no idea what the theme was and with a couple of ambiguous … Read more >>

Solving time: about 2 hours This was a nice example of a fairly gentle thematic puzzle. Extra words in clues are a fairly simple way of providing thematic messages, but the idea of … Read more >>

This was a very enjoyable exercise in ‘thinking outside the box’. Solvers were told that by disregarding convention they would discover three words, and were told further that given the position of any … Read more >>

Solvers were told that nine answers represented a song sequence, in clue order, but with a different and much happier ending.  The preamble also stated that the first answer, representing the eventual target, … Read more >>

For a blog of the puzzle see Duncan’s comment below. Many thanks Duncan.

Solving time: ages! This was a classic example of the kind of themed puzzle for which solver A can spot the theme instantly and have the whole thing done in an hour or … Read more >>

What an excellent puzzle, almost ruined by poor proof reading!  Editor please note!! First the moans: Wrong word length for 1A – to be consistent with the other clues with unchecked blanks it should … Read more >>

Bit of a mix-up, so an emergency late blog. Please forgive any mistakes! Wonderful puzzle from Ploy, but you would have to be a REAL anorak (as in trainspotter) to solve it without … Read more >>

Excellent crossword! Quite testing and certainly fun, with enough continuous progress to keep you interested. There were five types of clue. 1. Five “appendectomies” where the last letter had to be deleted before … Read more >>

Solving time: about an hour I solved a fair number of clues cold and then wondered what was going on, but then saw that all the answers with different lengths to the grid … Read more >>

I had so solve this puzzle immediately after solving another Nutmeg puzzle so I was hoping for a very different theme. The preamble suggested choices in solving clues and in entering answers. At … Read more >>

One of the Hihobas found a nicely shaped box on his doorstep this week, following Inquisitor 59, so a small celebration will be held! The theme to number 61 stuck out a mile! The first two … Read more >>

The title – Proceedings – alludes to ‘Carry on’, so this crossword was an entertaining romp down the history of ‘Carry On …….’ films, of which there were twenty-nine original and one compilation … Read more >>

Solving time: no recorded – let’s call it 90 minutes With lots of articles in the papers, it didn’t take much effort to guess a possible theme here – the spare letters message … Read more >>

The preamble to the puzzle indicated that it included 12 unclued entries, four of which (11a, 35a, 22d and 24d) would represent a recent sequence in the correct order. Four pairs of the … Read more >>