Never knowingly undersolved
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism The online version had the compiler as Anaz this morning, but the printed version says Anax. I found the puzzle a bit of a … Read more >>
A tougher than normal puzzle from Rufus, I thought, but perhaps just because of quite a few gaps in my knowledge. (See below.) Very smooth surface readings, as ever – my particular favourite … Read more >>
A straightforward Quiptic this week, with a number of tried and trusted devices, and very few less-known words. A good one for a beginner, my only quibble being 25ac., which I’m not sure … Read more >>
We were very happy that Quixote went easy on us this week, as we completed this one with considerable hangovers after the joy of the Azed 2,000 lunch. Nothing too taxing here, but … Read more >>
Lorraine: I must admit I struggled slightly this week due to being a tad hungover from the Azed luncheon in Oxford. Excellent puzzle as always. I particularly liked 3dn, good anagram. Thank you … Read more >>
Six months have passed, so it must be my turn to blog a Guardian Genius again. I have solved one or two Lavatch puzzles in The Listener so I knew this would … Read more >>
We all knew this puzzle would be some kind of special, but I doubt many guessed the exact kind correctly. It turned out that two letters had to be removed from the answers … Read more >>
I’m sorry that you are stuck with two Saturday puzzle blogs in a row from me, but thanks to the other Saturday Independent bloggers for letting me do some swaps to overcome periods when … Read more >>
I do enjoy Araucaria’s alphabetical jigsaws and this was no exception. I don’t remember one previously where the answers could be entered into the grid in two possible ways but the completed grid … Read more >>
I ‘missed the boat’ at first on this one – thinking it was referring to ‘grockles’, a mildly derogatory term for incomer, or tourist, in some parts of the UK, so I was … Read more >>
The usual excellent puzzle from Phi. Definitely some tough words in here I thought and I needed a bit of help to finish it off. Lovely clueing as always though. Across 1 SCHEDULE … Read more >>
The kiss of the spiderwoman turned out to be not too severe today, with help from easy clues to the long answers at 1ac and 7dn. There’s some quite devious wordplay, though, that … Read more >>
Mudd’s puzzle brims with wit and laugh-out-loud moments. The top-right gave me with some moments of anxiety with words for Portmouth and Ireland that I didn’t know, and 4A took a long time … Read more >>
Plenty of Flimsy whimsy in evidence today, although I thought that a couple of clues (12A, 19A) were, in part, too lazily self-referential. On the plus side, I learned a geographic factoid courtesy … Read more >>
An excellent crossword from Morph today. There are still some that I can’t see but I’m sure they will be explained by someone. As for a Nina, I suspect there is one since … Read more >>