Not an easy end to the week……
Independent on Sunday 1429/Raich
Raich can do hard, but his IoS puzzles are generally accessible, and I at least found this one so. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition (xxxx)* anagram … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations 1285 Outrageous Simile by Stick Kcit
A wonderfully complex preamble this week. Read once, twice maybe three times? And then start on the clues and hope it all falls into place. The preamble in summary: There are 9 … Read more >>
Guardian 27,244 / Paul
For some reason it took a while to for us to get momentum in solving this, although looking back I can’t quite see why: everything’s completely fair, and nothing really obscure. As with … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,601 by GOZO
If you knew your way around France and its history, you would have found this FT challenge from Gozo easy. Unfortunately, I didnt. 26ac needs work as well.
Guardian 27,249 – Maskarade
It was a surprise to see Maskarade’s name today, as he has previously only mostly appeared as a setter of bank holiday specials… … but the reason soon became clear, as the letters … Read more >>
Independent 9595 / Phi
It’s Phi-day again! We have to say that, as a solve, we found this rather ‘vanilla’ – not unenjoyable, but not really very challenging. Phi’s choice of entries for the four-letter words … Read more >>
Independent 9,594 / Dutch
This is my first outing as a blogger with Dutch, and a most enjoyable experience it was too! I found this to be a medium-difficulty puzzle, with a good few write-ins (mainly anagrams) … Read more >>
Guardian 27,248 / Paul
Well, this was certainly a puzzle to get your teeth into! Some easy entry clues but then others that required quite a bit of unpicking. My last parse (4dn) didn’t come until I … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,600 by CHALMIE
A tribute to an American poet from Chalmie.
Financial Times 15,591 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword / Jul 3, 2017
Dante in a very friendly mood, in my opinion.
Not that many cryptic definitions this time.
Financial Times 15,590 by Gaff
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 1, 2017
Financial Times 15,599 / Julius
I don’t know what’s happened to PeeDee today, but something has prevented him from being with us, so here is a quick analysis of the clues. With 1ac and 1dn being my first … Read more >>
Independent 9593 / Tees
Tees fills the Wednesday slot this week. Tees has forsaken his usual classical and mythological path today and homed in on a more modern theme that fits with my childhood. The … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 27,247 by Philistine
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27247.