This was hard. Solving the puzzle, explaining the answers and writing it all up took hours, and being so engrossed in sorting all this out I have forgotten to give my daughter a lift to the dentist. I am going to be in big trouble later. Thanks Io.
Independent 9,575 / Eccles
Eccles appears to be standing in for Dac in the Wednesday slot this week. And speaking of standing in for people, many thanks to Gaufrid for replacing me at short notice last Thursday, … Read more >>
Guardian 27,229 – Screw
Very enjoyable – favourites were 1ac and 19ac. Thanks, Screw.
Inquisitor 1494: Mirror Image by Serpent
Got there in the end, but a Serpentine puzzle! The rubric read: The completed grid is inspired by a famous image. Other than 8, wordplay in each across clue leads to the answer … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,580 by HAMILTON
I struggled a bit with this, and not for reasons of personal slow-wittedness, for once.
Independent 9574 / Kairos
Kairos is not a setter that I have blogged very often. When I solved the puzzle I struggled quite a bit. When I came to write the blog I wondered … Read more >>
Guardian 27,228 – Arachne
I was planning to start this blog by saying “it’s been a while since I blogged an Arachne puzzle”, and then found that that was exactly what I said when I last did … Read more >>
Independent 9,573 by Hoskins
A nice start-the-week sort of crossword with lots of well written clues.
Guardian Quiptic 918/Pan
Pan is one of the well-established Quiptic setters and invariably provides us with a good start to the week. He/she has done so here again, although the grid, with lots of clues with … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 27,227 by Rufus
A better than average Rufus today.
Everyman 3,687
Yet again Everyman has produced an accessible puzzle that is ideal for those new, or relatively new, to the art of solving cryptic crosswords. However, I do have one minor reservation. For the … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1425/Daedalus
I found this a bit of a slog, but that could just be me. Daedalus has created a Father’s Day puzzle where every clue has a reference to ‘father’ in it, either … Read more >>
Azed 2348
A plain Azed puzzle this week The parsing took me a while to suss out this week. I didn’t get to the bottom of a few clues until well into … Read more >>
Independent 9572 by Anax (Saturday Puzzle 17 Jun 2017)
A tough-but-fair mental workout from Anax this Saturday… …two 3-linked-words clues at 6D and 18D, which either help or hinder, depending on how quickly you get them (not very quickly, in my case!), and … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations 1281 Carte Blanche by Stick Insect
No bars this week. Extra letters in all the clues which spell out a line from a play. The letters within the speaker of this line then need to be highlighted. Sounds amusing. … Read more >>