Never knowingly undersolved
We have a typically elegant Dac crossword today You know what you are going to get with Dac. Clues with very good surfaces, unambiguous parsing and entries that come from … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27367.
Ifor is an innovative and challenging setter, so it was good to see his name attached to this puzzle The preamble told us that "Across clues and entries are normal … Read more >>
I enjoyed this. Not too desperately difficult but there were some tricky bits. For example I only just realised about 26ac and was searching vainly on Google for some song that she performed.
A fairly typical puzzle from Pasquale, with the customary unfamiliar or half-forgotten word or two thrown in to challenge us – but all, as ever, meticulously clued and therefore ultimately solvable. Thank you, … Read more >>
Enjoyable puzzle. Nothing vicious, but always interesting with some very nice surfaces.
One of the longest-standing Quiptic setters, Hectence, is on the oche this morning, with a puzzle I much enjoyed. Since it’s promoted as being for ‘beginners and those in a hurry’, for the … Read more >>
Thanks Rufus – I especially liked 18ac, 25ac, 4dn, and 19dn.
Eccles made his debut in the Indy just over a year ago, but it’s the first time I’ve had the chance to blog one of his puzzles. I enjoyed it very much, especially … Read more >>
It may just be a product of my febrile (50-year-old) teenage imagination, but this puzzle seems to be a bit of a homage to the late Hugh Hefner… There is a WATER BED … Read more >>
Thanks to Peter, for a puzzle that posed just a little difficulty. Definitions are underlined in the clues. P.S. I will be away when this is posted, so the blog won’t be corrected for … Read more >>
A puzzle from Everyman with his usual sprinkling of multi-part clues. Some less than pleasing surface readings (if those are important to you) but otherwise, as usual, all sound and tractable. … Read more >>
I bought a Chambers Dictionary app for my phone last week so I could solve puzzles in the coffee shop without having to cart the Big Red Book around. So I tried using it for Azed this week. It was clearly more efficient than using the paper copy but made me realize how much of the pleasure of solving Azed is not just in the words I look up but in all those other words I come across on the way. I spend as much time off on tangents as I do solving the puzzle. An efficient app that takes me directly to the entry in question free of distractions sounds good in principle but I don’t think I will be using it as first choice in future. Thanks to Azed for a super puzzle, as always.
It’s been a while since I’ve tackled a Tees, so this was a welcome change. Perhaps not as hard as some by this often formidable setter? Unless I’m getting smarter, which seems deeply … Read more >>
This weekend, I have two Artix puzzles to blog. The first is over at Listen With Others, Follow the Directions and has Charles Kingsley’s Westward Ho as its theme. Unusually for Artix, the … Read more >>