A prize puzzle with a twist from Brummie this week.
Enigmatic Variations No. 1276: XXXX by Ifor
Here we had Ifor opening his soul to us, but obviously in code. The preamble read: An exhausted and destitute Ifor says “I’m XXXXX and on my XXXXX, so I’m going to stop … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,547 by WANDERER
A tricky offering from WANDERER, thanks to whom for a fun-filled evening of crossword solving!
Guardian Cryptic 27195 Paul
Quite a number of clues with containment indicators. I found that some of them were a little harder, especially the ones with a containment within a containment. Thanks to Paul. Definitions are underlined … Read more >>
Independent 9,541 / Phi
Phi has produced this Friday’s puzzle, as he does the puzzle on most Fridays. I actually found this crossword towards the harder end of the Phi spectrum, in that I really struggled with … Read more >>
Independent 9540 / Scorpion
Scorpion set today’s puzzle. Thursday is often a theme day. Although there was a theme you didn’t have to know it. Most of the across entries are the surnames of … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,546 / Peto
I found this to be a bit of a mixed bag, some very easy entries and some, such as 18ac, that took a little while to sort out the parsing. There are quite … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 27,194 by Arachne
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27194.
Financial Times 15,537 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword / May 1, 2017
It doesn’t happen very often that we see a Dante on two consecutive Mondays.
Guardian readers are used to have one Rufus after the other, FT customers usually get only half the amount.
Financial Times 15,536 by Redshank
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of April 29, 2017 I found this a slightly difficult puzzle, especially in the top-left corner. My clue of the week is 18a (SERENADE) which may qualify … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,545 by MONK
Another nice puzzle from Monk, a bit trickier than the last few of his that I have blogged.
Guardian 27,193 / Nutmeg
A characteristically elegant and witty puzzle from Nutmeg. Getting the four long answers early on certainly helped towards a straightforward but entertaining solve. Thank you, Nutmeg – I really enjoyed it. Definitions are … Read more >>
Independent 9,539 by Eccles
An excellent puzzle from Eccles with soundness (I think) coupled with very pleasing surfaces. I found this very hard to begin with — none of the Acrosses fell at first sight — and then there were plenty of accessible Downs. Finally I stopped, having spent ages and failed on 22ac and 25ac. One of them is a (to me) dreaded cryptic definition, so there weren’t the usual two ways to the answer and I couldn’t see the required one; the other one (25ac) is still a bit of a mystery; no doubt someone will explain it better than I can.
Inquisitor 1488: Captain’s Log by Harribobs
Inquisitor puzzle by Harribobs … memories of BATS, struggling with the start of the endgame … Preamble: In some clues, wordplay leads to the answer plus an extra letter; extra letters spell … Read more >>
Independent 9538 / Hoskins
A fun puzzle from Hoskins today – mostly fairly straightforward, but with a few that got us thinking. We only realised that there was more to the puzzle when we had moreorless … Read more >>