Never knowingly undersolved
Solving time: 26 minutes Terrific fun today from Monk with some real laugh-aloud clues including 1 across and 13 down. Nina hunters (those little hidden messages in puzzles) will be delighted to see … Read more >>
As far as Inquisiotrs go, this was pretty straightforward. A few recent puzzles have been of the “extra word in the clue” type, so I am becoming accustomed to them. In this example, … Read more >>
Solving time: 19 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 T(RAJ)AN A Roman Emperor Raj = British rule in India 4 OBSERVER A competing Sunday newspaper 9 COT … Read more >>
A puzzle timed for the 30th anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, who to this blogger remains the King – for his earlier music and films especially. There were 7 lines of … Read more >>
It was mostly quite easy, but with a fiendish top right corner that held me up for ages, and I messed up on two clues early on, which didn’t help. Only finished properly … Read more >>
Solving time: 57 minutes A nice friendly monthly puzzle from Azed, with some clever clueing and no need to resort to brain straining themes or devices. I wonder whether indicating hyphenated answers would … Read more >>
Actually for me the difficulty of this puzzle was fairly average, leavened a bit by a typical kind of Cinephile theme, fiends. I have enjoyed puzzles by John Graham (Cinephile/Araucaria) for many years … Read more >>
Solving time: 16 mins < = reversed * = anagram ACROSS 1 Tom SHARPE “Sharp” 4 B (LACK S) E A be = live on the borders = outside 9 RISQUE … Read more >>
Well, this wasn’t too difficult at all, much to my surprise. I forgot to set the timer going, but I solved it in around 15 or 16 minutes. There were still some tricky … Read more >>
A very pleasing puzzle, which I found quite easy. Solving time: 22 mins * = anagram < = reverse ACROSS 9 OVERT RUMP Ruff (a term from the card game bridge, I … Read more >>
Just a short blog for this puzzle as many of the clues don’t really need much explaining. One thing you could never accuse Armonie of is unnecessary complexity in his clueing as the … Read more >>
This didn’t take me very long, and was short on elation in the solving. Across 9 C EASE F IRE C for constant, ire is anger, ease is to moderate and f for … Read more >>
As older readers will know, we’ve had a couple of evening meetings at London pubs for contributors to and readers of this blog, Times for the Times and Tony Sever’s RTC3. Both times, we’ve also … Read more >>
My favourite clues combine Rufus’s trademark cryptic definitions with wordplay, so as to keep you guessing for longer – 5 and 11 across require unravelling, whereas 17 across couldn’t be anything else. ACROSS: … Read more >>
Across 9 (+M)OBS,TER(-M) – an “obsolete expression” would be an OBS TERM. Move the back (M) to the front to get MOBSTER. 10 TO(Y for P)SHOP – I initally thought the fashion retailer … Read more >>