Never knowingly undersolved
The first puzzle of this new month has been provided by Phi, occupying his usual Friday slot. I found this to be an enjoyable, medium-difficulty puzzle, with not that many write-ins to get … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27291.
My first Thursday, first Orense, and very nice too. Simple but satisfying. Sorry for late blog; the puzzle didn’t come on-line until mid-day for some reason.
A fun puzzle from Paul, proving that he can raise a smile or two and still be squeaky-clean. Some ingenious wordplay in the clues, causing a couple of minor hold-ups in the parsing … Read more >>
Klingsor provided great fun and enjoyment today. Well he did for me anyway. This was my kind of cluing with a lot of component parts for some of the entries. … Read more >>
Monday Prize Crossword / Aug 21, 2017
Very nice crossword from Falcon, full of history & culture.
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 19, 2017
There were a couple of classical references in here that I did not understand. Normally I manage to guess what to do from the rest of the clue but this time I needed Wikipedia to come to my aid. History and Classics are not my strong point but I’m certainly not complaining as one of the things I enjoy about crosswords is learning all that new stuff along the way. Thanks Dogberry.
The PDF version of this puzzle did not display correctly when I opened it on my PC. The numbers in the grid were replaced with a seemingly random selection of symbols found on the top line of a keyboard: &, ( and * for example. There is also a typo in 6 down dipomatically, I don’t know if this is related.
One of Dac’s typically smoothly-constructed crosswords. The usual good clues and nothing to take any sort of exception to. I found most of this quite easy and then came to a halt on the quartet of 1ac, 9ac, 1dn. 3dn, failing to see the equivalence of a card game to cards, expecting the church bell’s noise to be a ring, thinking the female would be either f or a girl’s name, and expecting a bit of dope to be d.
Definitions in maroon, underlined.
A message from John Henderson:
Here’s my end-of-summer update and request for details, slightly different to last year, but easier for everyone, I hope! Even if you have indicated attendance/accommodation details in the spring announcement, please would you give your A-E details in a post hereinunder.
Edit 25/10/17: Details of the Friday night ‘ale trail’ can be found here (map) and here (text).
Too many clues made me smile to mention them all – particular favourites were 25ac, 27ac, and 10dn. Thanks Picaroon
Somehow, a few weeks ago, I’d picked up on the fact that a puzzle from Phi would be my next one to blog. Preamble: Five across clues and five down clues each … Read more >>
Mostly very straightforward clueing from Pan (who is a recent addition to the cryptic slot, after many years of setting Quiptics), with only 7d causing me any difficulty in parsing. Pleasant enough, if … Read more >>
Thanks to Sleuth. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Close to perfect, fantastically original element in a man’s suit? (9) TAILORING : Last letter of(Close to) “perfect” + anagram of(fantastically) ORIGINAL … Read more >>
This is Quaiteaux’ 2nd puzzle this year, a welcome return after a gap of eighteen months or so from her previous offerings. We think Quaiteaux must be from the same era as … Read more >>