Never knowingly undersolved
It has been a long time since it has fallen to me to blog a puzzle by Wire. I found this to be an enjoyable, not overly taxing, puzzle to kick off my … Read more >>
A clever and highly enjoyable puzzle from Picaroon based around 12d, with varying interpretations of the phrase. The gateway clue is quite an easy one, but it was still fun to work out … Read more >>
Thank you to Hectence for this tricky Quiptic. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1. Luxury extension can perhaps ruin housing (12) EXTRAVAGANCE : EXT(abbrev. for “extension”) + [anagram of(… perhaps) CAN … Read more >>
Vulcan's alter ego usurps the Monday slot. We have become used to Vulcan crosswords on Mondays over the last few years, but our setter (or the editor) may have considered this one a … Read more >>
Happy New Year! There we go, my one and only use of the exclamation mark over with for 2021. On with the puzzle from Italicus. He has been setting for the Indy for … Read more >>
Back to work this week, with a gentle SLORMGORM to start things off… Happy new year everyone! Once more round the Sun for 4d’s pale blue dot. Nice mix of clues with some … Read more >>
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without the Jumbo Cyclops special. This year he has chosen to visit the ‘Pseuds Corner’ feature for the theme… (is anyone else just itching to put an apostrophe in ‘Pseuds’ – before or after the ‘s’?! – but it seems there isn’t one in the published magazine…)
“The two unclued entries comprise a duo and an alternative rendering; ALL THAT must be completed by filling the empty cell. Four of the duo’s works, treated in accordance with the rendering, appear symmetrically in the grid, and must be highlighted along with the completion (34 cells in total). Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
The puzzle can be found here. Hello and a very Happy New Year to you all. Tees is back doing what he does best – unless, of course, he does other things … Read more >>
A very pleasing selection of unusual words, with one fiendish clue and one rather puzzling one. Thank you Azed. ACROSS 1 SLANTINGWAYS Way t’ inn glass is swirled round obliquely (12) anagram (is … Read more >>
Well, this was a real Genius puzzle. We knew we were in for a serious challenge this month when we read (or tried to read) the preamble: Tjyuffo tpmvujpot nvtu cf fodjqifsfe cfgpsf … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3872. When this blog comes out, we will be in the New Year, so let us hope for something a little better (can’t get much worse). Everyman, … Read more >>
Azed’s Christmas special… … I wasn’t sure, even with two weeks to solve this, that I was going to complete this puzzle (and I’m not 100% sure I have done – see 11 … Read more >>
Raich is a fairly prolific, and long-standing, Indy and IOS setter, but this is the first of his Indys I have blogged – although I did cover a couple of his Enigmatic Variations barred/thematic puzzles, way back in 2011 and beyond!
Picaroon rounds off the year of Saturday crosswords with a puzzle that initially baffled me more than most of you, I suspect. The Special instructions were: ‘Wordplay in all but one of the … Read more >>