Never knowingly undersolved
A cryptic title, hinting maybe at Columbo, with his dour demeanour and down-at-heel dress sense? The preamble tells us to find a horizontally-symmetrical four word quotation, and twelve answers needing some sort of adjustment … Read more >>
Great stuff! After some easy puzzles during the week we have this really solid challenge for the Easter weekend. I thought this one was harder than the usual holiday specials from Araucaria. There were not … Read more >>
Most of the clueing in this was fairly straightforward (though there are a couple I can’t fully explain), but there were a few references that I needed to look up to confirm the … Read more >>
Sharp and intelligent offering from the Don today ACROSS 7 RAILLERY banter ILL ER in RAY light 8 INDIGO colour INDI[a] GO vitality 11 NANCY female FANCY imagine with … Read more >>
If it’s Friday it’s usually Phi and so it is today. I found this a bit tougher than some Phis that I have solved recently, but the parsing was very … Read more >>
Yet another excellent workout from Klingsor this morning. Many of the clues have quite tricky constructions, but it is all perfectly fair and often very nice. As always with Klingsor — what else, when … Read more >>
Enjoyed this a lot, especially the theme. Favourite clues 11a, 15d and 19d. Across 9 ACADEMISM =”adherence to formal rules”. An art movement influenced by the French Académie des Beaux-Arts (Madame is)* around … Read more >>
As usual from Redshank, a very enjoyable and inventive puzzle. A few new and half-forgotten words here for me. Plus, it’s a pangram (something I usually manage to overlook; I only spotted this … Read more >>
Monday Prize Crossword/Apr 2 A Dante puzzle that I completed in two sessions, which probably makes clear that I didn’t find this the easiest of Dantes. Some real gems in this puzzle (1ac, … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 31, 2012 I bet a lot of people had trouble with 3D (PHWOAR). I certainly did. I was not inclined to believe PHWOAR is a … Read more >>
With this sort of DIY grid puzzle, it all depends how easy cold-solving is. So how easy is this going to be? And what’s the puzzle actually called? In fact, in addition to … Read more >>
Another lucky week for me. I get to blog the Guardian Easter Special at the weekend and now this really super themed puzzle from Gozo today. I recomend having a go at this … Read more >>
An enjoyable but not spectacular puzzle from Dac. As usual the clues were well composed with some clever use of adjectives, nouns and verbs changing usage which some people may not like…. but … Read more >>
A very satisfying puzzle – not too difficult, with a plethora of ingenious and witty devices. Across 1. Last queen but one between posts (6) KEEPER A charade of KEEP (‘last’) + ER … Read more >>
There’s a misprint in the definition in all clues. In clue order, they spell out a two part instruction, which will help us to identify a “running joke.” Once the grid’s complete, we have to transform … Read more >>