Never knowingly undersolved
Azed has been producing some tricky puzzles lately, and this continues the trend (at least it did for me), with I think rather more obscure words and references than usual. I’ve had to … Read more >>
A fine offering from Everyman, abounding in smooth surfaces, a good variety of clue types and no outlandishly convoluted wordplays.
Ifor is a relatively new setter whose recent puzzles I have enjoyed. His latest Listener (4137: Frightened Catherine), was fairly tricky, and his last EV (956: Ego Problem) was quite amusing! There were … Read more >>
Crosophile is a new name to me – a search of the 15×15 site shows he has a few weekday Independent and Independent on Sunday cryptics under his belt, but I think this is … Read more >>
Araucaria in a solidly libertarian frame of mind for this puzzle. Some people will complain, some won’t care, some won’t notice. Personally, I’m in the ‘not care’ category, though I don’t think I would be so forgiving … Read more >>
The usual excellent puzzle from Bradman with eloquent clue surfaces and some deceptive use of punctuation (25a, 14d). I started from the right of the grid and worked my way to the bottom-left. … Read more >>
This is vintage Paul – some very clever cluing and lots to entertain and raise a smile. Enough said! Many thanks, Paul. Across 1 FEWEST: F[our] + E[ast] + WEST 9 DAMNATION: DAM … Read more >>
I particularly enjoyed solving and blogging this Phi puzzle, my first Phi for a while. An initial perusal revealed only a few (short) entries, then a lot of solutions came in a flurry, … Read more >>
Well, to paraphrase Mark Twain, some may see this as a good puzzle spoiled, but I thought it was a belter. Coinciding with the start of The Open today, Radian has crammed a … Read more >>
Mostly a doddle, this one, in spite of a couple of sly misdirections and too many financial allusions for this solver’s comfort (although I suppose there may be solvers who buy the FT … Read more >>
I’ve found some of Crucible’s puzzles rather hard, so I was a bit worried when I saw that I had to blog this one, but it turned out to be quite reasonable, though … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 2 I enjoyed this relatively easy Mudd. Easy except that 24A (EVERTON) stumped me for a good while. My favourite clue is 11A (DISAPPOINT) while … Read more >>
The typical excellent Dac crossword with nothing at all controversial. There are one or two slightly unusual words, or unusual uses at any rate, but they are clear enough from the wordplay. Across … Read more >>
Cinephile gets everything right in this crossword: inventive, varied, no sloppy clues and exactly the right level of difficulty. Altogether a pleasure to solve and a pleasure to blog. Thanks Cinephile. Hold mouse over … Read more >>
Chalicea – a setter new to the Inquisitor {but see comment 7}, and, appropriately for me, I flew to Zürich the day after the puzzle’s publication and I’m blogging from the Bernese alps. … Read more >>