Guardian 25,159 – Araucaria
A moderately tricky Araucaria with some interestingly linked clues and a lot of amusement as always. There are also quite a few of his characteristic liberties, which I’ve noted in the comments below. … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,525 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword on 25 October 2010 Unfortunately, someone made a small error in the grid resulting in the first and last Across answers not fitting the extra space provided. This also played … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,524 by Mudd
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of October 23 This strikes me as a rather pedestrian puzzle. I particularly like 23A (ARC) and 16D (DOWNSTAIRS). Across 9. CASTOR OIL – O (old) in … Read more >>
Guardian 25,158 – Brummie
Enjoyable puzzle today with nothing too difficult and a cute mini-theme. Across 1 TIEBACK TIE=”match” + BACK=”second” 5,8 NUCLEAR REACTION “He commonly”=>’E + EQUALS EMCEE SQUARED, which describes the mass-energy equivalence demonstrated by … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,533 / Io
Unfortunately we don’t see Io all that often in the FT (his last appearance was just over three months ago) but his puzzles are invariably a pleasure to solve and this was no … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1149: Last Laugh by Kea
I found this pretty tricky and it took several hours over three days to complete. Some interesting words, two of which (ZARI and NIKAB) are only in the latest version of Chambers. Google helped … Read more >>
Independent 7504/Dac
As usual a beautifully elegant construction from Dac. All the clues lead to their solutions with crystalline ease, and they can nearly all be explained in simple logical ways without resort to references, … Read more >>
Independent – 7503 by Morph
Well it is November and been stormy recently, but with Morph here it’s positively raining Cats and Dogs. Cats appear on the left hand side of the grid and dogs on the right. … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,532 / Neo
A quick solve from Neo today. Nothing especially commentworthy, but I enjoyed 21 across and 15 down, among others. Across 8 AGOUTI OUT (in the open) in A GI (an American soldier) 9 … Read more >>
Guardian 25157 Pasquale – Swan of Lichfield to the rescue
A very challenging puzzle from another Master which took me an hour to crack, helped by furious references to on-line sources for words and things I have never heard of before until today. … Read more >>
Guardian 25,156 / Rufus
Sorry for the very late post – I’ve been a bit overwhelmed today, and only just got a chance to rush out this post. Apologies for any errors or omissions… Across 1. PROPELLOR … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic 572 / Orlando
Orlando isn’t a regular setter of the Quiptic (this is his first outing this year as far as I can see), but he has produced a most enjoyable and accessible puzzle for us … Read more >>
Guardian Genius No. 88 / Pasquale
Apologies for the late appearance of a post for this puzzle. The scheduled blogger forgot that it was her turn and did not solve it so I am standing in at the last … Read more >>
Site Maintenance
I undertook some site maintenance work over the weekend which involved clearing out redundant items from the database. In the process, it appears that a few posts have been closed to further comments. … Read more >>
Independent 7502 by Merlin
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Continuing the recent run of themed puzzles in the Indy, this one contained a number of literary adulteresses. It was quite easy to get … Read more >>