Never knowingly undersolved
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 6 Here we have two clues with, if I am understanding them correctly, cryptic containment indicators, 6D and 23D. Interesting. I like the latter one. … Read more >>
A special puzzle on the Irish national day, St Patrick’s Day, by Virgilius who hails from there. Impressive that so much thematic material was packed into clues and answers. Great stuff as always … Read more >>
A relatively straightforward puzzle by Cinephile standards with only a couple of clues giving pause for thought …..
Lots of ducks in today’s crossword – yet another rushed post from me in rather awkward circumstances, and I’m afraid I don’t get 12 across or 7 down Across 1. SCALE UP LE[vel] … Read more >>
This was mostly straightforward, but there were some creative elements here, noted below. Across 1 REPORT REP (salesman) OR T (“agent”‘s conclusion) 4 SCREWS UP CREW (ship’s company) in PUSS (cat) reversed 10 … Read more >>
A pretty tough but enjoyable themed puzzle from a Fifteensquared regular. The theme is spelled out in a Nina across the top row, and fans of prison-based sitcoms, or perhaps just those of … Read more >>
Paul certainly knows how to make a theme exciting, right from 1Across to 22Down. In between, he sprinkled his wit and humour liberally. Challenging in parts but mostly very very entertaining. Bravo, Paul, … Read more >>
The usual Rufus combination of cryptic [not too many] and double definitions and elegant and witty surfaces. Across 7 PHILATELY: PHI [anagram of HIP] + LATELY 8 QUICK: double definition [‘quick’ = ‘living’ … Read more >>
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I finished this fairly quickly, with only the NE corner giving me a few problems. There was an unusually high number of &lits, of … Read more >>
No real problem with this lot – except 18A – for bringing back unpleasant memories, thus the blog title. You know there are some similarities between her and me: School reports show “hard … Read more >>
Blimey this was a tough one. That, plus most of the week spent at a conference means this week’s posting is a little late. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across … Read more >>
The usual very satisfactory offering from Azed. I have learned not to look too far for wonderful surfaces, but to admire the faultless construction of his clues. Across 2 J ASS — one … Read more >>
Well, I for one think this one was a bit more challenging than the last few that I’ve blogged. A couple of nice cryptic definitions, and some slightly more obscure words both as … Read more >>
I’m a last-minute substitute for rightback, who, unfortunately, has internet problems, so, not having expected to blog this, I’m trying to remember my thought processes when I solved it a week ago and … Read more >>
Quite a complex preamble this week – additional letters in the wordplay of the across clues, additional words in the down clues and ten unclued entries, seven of which required modification. So what about … Read more >>