Never knowingly undersolved
History will perhaps record that the first Independent cryptic of the paper’s digital-only age was set by Punk and blogged by Pierre. I just hope that I’ve done it justice, because it was … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26843.
A mid range Eye puzzle. Nothing terribly hard, nothing terribly easy, but some lovely smutty surface readings to the clues as usual. Across 1 SAVE Head of Tesco abandons staff cut back (4) … Read more >>
Am I more stupid than normal…?
It’s been quite some time since we’ve seen Quixote on a Sunday. In fact it’s almost five years to the day because his last IoS was No. 1102 on 27th March 2011. The … Read more >>
Hard! Normally I manage to finish AZED with just a paper copy of Chambers for aid. It may take more than one sitting but I get there in a reasonable amount of time. Not this week. I gave up trying to solve unaided early on and even using electronic aids I really struggled. At times I was basically cheating as I was trawling the web for information and using all sorts of word-search programs to try and make progress. Towards the end things got a little easier as the number of checking letters allowed me to revert to a more straightforward approach. Thank you AZED for a great challenge.
From today’s final print edition:
“Fantastic news: the Inquisitor will have a new slot in the i newspaper every Saturday.”
I have in my hand a piece of paper…and unfortunately this is the last time I will be able to say that about a newsprint copy of an Indy Prize Cryptic (;+<) (My understanding … Read more >>
A fun puzzle from Picaroon, and not very taxing My favourite clue was 11a AN IDEAL HUSBAND, I think. Across 1. How poet’s day starts, absorbing French from novel (6) MODERN MORN = … Read more >>
This week we had an alphabetical jigsaw from Jaques. I have to confess that they’re not my favourite, although I’ve had my fair share to blog at Listen With Others. They generally involve … Read more >>
The honour of blogging the last weekday, dead-tree Indy cryptic puzzle falls to us on this rather sad day. Although the future of the daily cryptic seems reasonably secure in the online version … Read more >>
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26841.
It has been a while since I have solved/blogged a puzzle by Tees. I found this one quite a challenge, despite a fair few write-ins at the start. It took me a while … Read more >>
A tough, but generally fair workout.
I really enjoyed this puzzle from Paul – lots of witty clues and, though mostly straightforward, enough of a challenge to keep it interesting. Many thanks, Paul – nice one. Across 5,22 Senior … Read more >>