Never knowingly undersolved
Solving time: 10 mins Not too difficult this week but there were several dubious clues in this (e.g. 11ac, 20ac, 1dn, 3dn, 16dn); not Araucaria’s finest, I thought. Music of the day (5dn): … Read more >>
It’s been a good week of puzzles in the Indy and a pretty tough one too. I got on fine with this one as Phi rarely puts a foot wrong with his clueing, … Read more >>
One of my fastest Beelzebub solves of recent times, as witnessed by me blogging this on the Sunday, for once. There is just one – at 29ac – for which I can find … Read more >>
We were told that seven grid entries, clued without definition, were of a kind. Their response to an exhortation would affect the method of entry of a further seven clue answers. Further, all … Read more >>
A mostly very enjoyable puzzle, with a nicely done theme. Across 1. CALIFORNIUM Two subsidiary indicators here: (a) A Latinist might say Californium is the singular of California (“state”) (b) CALIF = “leader … Read more >>
With his trademark 15-letter answers you certainly get your money’s worth from Nimrod. This took me ages, of course, and couldn’t have finished without a bit of dictionary-bashing etc. I found the bottom … Read more >>
Straightforward stuff today, with a mini-theme of furniture. Many cryptic and double definitions but none that truly sparkled. 20d stood out for its cleverly positioned hyphen at line-break. Across 1 SCHOOL cd 4 … Read more >>
Good stuff, as usual, from Mudd; including some decent treatment of rather mundane words or devices. I also liked the grid design, which allowed for a nice balance of checking patterns. I don’t … Read more >>
Very inventive and satisfying puzzle from Nestor, quite hard, solving time 45 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 A NDROMEDA GALAXY (Gary Oldman axed)* 10 LEANEST “Art showing tendency that’s … Read more >>
Very enjoyable puzzle with a cleverly clued theme. Very Paul, very good. Across 8 CINERAMA: anagram of AMERICAN 9 ANODES: O (nothing) in ANDES (range) 11 LINSEED OIL: anagram of DEONISE in LL … Read more >>
Solving time, 22 mins. Lower half harder than top half, I found * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 LAPP (p pal)< 4 SUBJECT S 9 SCAR(C)E 10 PEA (CO C)KS 11 … Read more >>
Monday Prize Crossword on 11 January 2010 Back to Dante for another not-so-taxing week-opener with some delightful cryptic definitions and double definitions. However, I suspect Dante may have got his mythologies mixed up … Read more >>
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of January 9 I needed a bit of dictionary and Google help to finish this puzzle. And I did not get 20D. I especially like 23A and … Read more >>
A rare weekday outing for Mass, with whom I’m most familiar via the concise crossword that shares a page with Beelzebub in the Independent on Sunday, and a particularly challenging and very thoroughly … Read more >>
I’m not quite sure what to say about this one. I found it hard in places and very easy elsewhere. Some answers were obvious from the enumeration and a few took a while … Read more >>