Never knowingly undersolved
I had this blog all set up…and then the Bank Holiday weekend just crept up on me… Hopefully it is all covered below…the usual mix of Cyclops-ean establishment targets and skoolboy-ish smuttery… Keep … Read more >>
Picaroon has set the March Guardian Genius puzzle The preamble was short and clear – "Several clues are consistently incomplete" I deduced the theme fairly quickly when I solved 14 … Read more >>
Vintage Hoskins, I would say. Pitched just right for a Sunday, with some trademark Hoskins irreverent moments and even a theme, of which more later. Apart from the North-West corner, which put up … Read more >>
Some wonderful new words this week. Solving and blogging Azed really is a dictionary nerd’s delight. Thank you Azed.
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3728.
Easter weekend and a puzzle from Monk. At this time of semi-religious celebrations, I did have my own “Road to Damsucus” revelation. Whilst I spend most of my solving time looking at the … Read more >>
Four weeks ago, I wrote in my preamble to a Paul Prize puzzle blog, “Because I blog the Prize puzzle every four weeks and Paul seems to occupy the Prize slot every two … Read more >>
“Despite being a 13, Gaston works at the 21 (both clued by wordplay only). All other across clues are normal, though four thematic pairs of suitably positioned entries are unclued. Wordplay in all but the final down clue leads to the answer and an additional letter not to be entered into the grid; in clue order these spell out an AIDE-MÉMOIRE to help Gaston remember the correct sequence of unclued entries. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
This was one of Phi’s hardest, I thought, not helped by several words …
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27470.
As this was a jigsaw-style puzzle I was unable to use the usual blogging software, so apologies for the layout of today’s blog, and for the lateness of the post. The puzzle was … Read more >>
A typically elegant and witty offering from Nutmeg – my thanks to her for an enjoyable puzzle. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 9 Cut, but not polished, when suggested? (5-4) ROUGH-HEWN … Read more >>
A great Thursday challenge from Knut today. Plenty here to get the old grey matter working. Not being football fans, we had to check 18ac but Bert had at least heard of … Read more >>
Played with a straight bat, a safe pair of hands and no tampering. Thank you Bradman.
Tricky, fun, and all perfectly fair – favourites were 18ac, 25ac, 27ac, 2dn, and 20dn. Thanks, Picaroon