Never knowingly undersolved
There should be more pianolas in the world. 10a Pianola was my first in from the clear anagram and cheeky definition. A schoolfriend’s mum had a pianola and I loved playing it. Everybody … Read more >>
An enjoyable Cyclops, with a line-up of the usual suspects as clue-surface-reading targets…
So, after the exigencies of the Xmas monster, we expect not just return to normal, but a more gentle puzzle to let us get over the new year hangover. What we got was … Read more >>
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the Jumbo Cyclops special. This year he has chosen to visit the ‘Pseuds Corner’ feature for the theme… (is anyone else just itching to put an apostrophe in ‘Pseuds’ – before or after the ‘s’?! – but it seems there isn’t one in the published magazine…)
Cyclops is working the last few Trumpian references out of his system and into his clue wordplay, before Ronald T Dump is finally consigned to the S-bend of history, in a couple of puzzles’ time…
This was another puzzle on the tough side for the Eye. I certainly made heavy weather of it. It didn’t seem that way at the start. First clue solved, 12A, was after trying … Read more >>
What a shame that Cyclops and other setters are soon going to have to find other ways of indicating Ps (‘Trump’s back end’) and Ts (‘Trump’s first…’). It is all going to be JBs and KHs from January onwards!
I thought I might get the whole thing done in one pass, but ran out of steam with 5 to go mainly in the top left. Just as well really. When I got … Read more >>
It is all a bit doom and gloom from Cyclops this fortnight…
On the tough side this time, though it may have been me having a bad solving day. In retrospect, there isn’t anything madly difficult, so I must’ve been off Cyclops’ wavelength this time. … Read more >>
Is it just me, or is Cyclops getting smuttier in his clueing lately?!…
Another diverting solve from our one-eyed friend. Solving proceeded in a stuttering manner with about half done at the end of the first pass with solutions entered all over the grid so the … Read more >>
Obviously this puzzle would have been set and commissioned well before the recent exams fiascos, but there are some prescient coincidences…
Medium difficulty for the Eye. About half in at the first pass and the other half filled-in without too much difficulty. So this is a great crossword to recommend to anyone starting out … Read more >>
Typical Cyclopsean fare, book-ended by two references to ‘members’, neither of which are MPs…but also two uncharacteristic setting/editing slips, at 1A and 20D?