Never knowingly undersolved
My first blog of a Gila puzzle. This might be a bit easier than a typical Gila. Thanks to Gila. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 A panel of judges trying … Read more >>
A challenging workout from Monk, with a couple of nice touches…
A prize puzzle with a twist from Brummie this week.
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 >>
A tricky offering from WANDERER, thanks to whom for a fun-filled evening of crossword solving!
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 >>
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 >>
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 >>
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 >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/27194.
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.
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 >>
Another nice puzzle from Monk, a bit trickier than the last few of his that I have blogged.
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 >>
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.