Never knowingly undersolved
A very quick solve this busy week, to my relief (more time for the garden!). Last one in was 12a. Special mention has to go to the anagram at 3d, and the wordplay … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found athttps://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26903.
I remeber when the Independent on Sunday puzzle was a gentle stroll after lunch- not any more! I found this quite tricky. Thanks to Anglio for an interesting puzzle.
Maybe a post-holiday malaise but I made heavy weather of this.
6 months comes around quickly, and it’s my turn on the Genius slot once more. I thought this was a great puzzle. The device was fairly straightforward, but the standard of clueing, misdirection, … Read more >>
A plain Azed puzzle this time generating the usual challenges. There were three compound anagram clues this week (13 across [NIKAU], 34 across [REDD] and 21 down [EJECTA]. They are … Read more >>
Well it’s a puzzle from Donk this week and a grid layout that I regard as one of the hardest with almost four distinct mini grids with minimal overlap. And yes it proved … Read more >>
Thinking Outside the Box is an ‘enter where they will fit’ puzzle. These typically require a lot of cold solving, so we’re (more than usually) at the mercy of the setter. If the clues are very difficult, these take a great deal of work. So how much thinking – inside or outside the box – will Piccadilly’s puzzle require?
I find Paul’s crosswords more varied than most of his contemporaries, one is never sure what one is going to get. It might be an easy-peasy puzzle or it might be a stinker; it could be serious or it could be puerile and frivolous. Today Paul is in fairly subdued mood, nothing outrageous but not completely serious either. Thanks Paul, please keep them coming.
It’s Friday, it’s Phi so all’s well with the world. There were a number of literary allusions in the clues and in the grid today but I’m not sure whether … Read more >>
A pleasant challenge from Wanderer this Friday. Clean cluing meant a steady solve, and also one new word that I learnt today.
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26901.
My apologies for being rather later than usual with the blog: I had various computer problems, resulting in losing the blog altogether. Bonxie puzzles are rather rare and I was pleased to see … Read more >>
A tough Thursday workout
Morph has given us his usual very sound and pleasant crossword. It was always my impression that Morph’s clues were on the wordy side, but I counted them (yes I really did, I have to admit) and the average word-length of each clue is only 7, which compares quite favourably with Dean Mayer’s last Sunday Times puzzle of 6.8. I had always thought that Dean’s clues were particularly pithy, but this one was not all that far behind. Anyway, perhaps it’s a bit silly to focus on length: quality is what it’s about, and there was plenty of quality here.