Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 20, 2016
Financial Times 15,178 by GOZO
A super puzzle, and not an easy one. Thank you Gozo.
Guardian 26,821 / Nutmeg
A gentle saunter from Nutmeg today with nothing to frighten the horses (and nothing much for me to say about it). No obscure words, no convoluted wordplay, just a straightforward and pleasant solve. … Read more >>
Independent 9,167 / Dac
It’s Wednesday morning and thus time for my monthly outing with Dac. Dac puzzles are always enjoyable, with tidy clues that can be parsed with absolute certainty, relying little on abstruse information or … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1426: Euro by Schadenfreude
Lacking an Inquisitor reprieve, this will be my penultimate blog. If your haven’t already done so, please sign the petition for the continuance of the Inquisitor which can be found HERE. This Schadenfreude … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,177 by ARMONIE
Typical Armonie fare
Independent 9166 / Knut
Knut.has a reputation for producing topical puzzles. This puzzle is topical, but I suspect it could have been published at any time over the next four months as the topic … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 26,820 by Imogen
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/26820.
Guardian Quiptic 850/Beale
I found this a difficult Quiptic, and when I’d finished solving and blogging it, I discovered why. Quiptics with a theme are about as rare as hens’ teeth, but there’s one here. It’s … Read more >>
Guardian 26,819 / Rufus
A traditional Rufus medley, with perhaps more anagrams and fewer cryptic and double definitions than usual. There are a couple of places where the cluing seems rather awry but it’s perhaps me being … Read more >>
Independent 9,165 by Rodriguez
Another new setter before the demise of the print edition, I guess for a setter seeing your name on line doesn’t have the same cachet as seeing it in print where you’ve “made it”.
Private Eye/Cyclops 567 Stupid mistakes
There were certainly a large number of mistakes in this puzzle. Gaffe, Lapse, Cock-up, Boob, Faux pas, Blunder and Goof, to name but a few. I couldn’t find any actual error though. Edit: … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1355
This was a little unusual for a Beelzebub in that I only needed to read a handful of clues more than once. Instead of my usual initial pass through all the clues, having … Read more >>
Everyman 3,620
Hello, from an overcast North London.
AZED 2,281
I always cheat when doing Azed. In a normal daily cryptic this would be unforgivable until perhaps the very end when one is stuck, but with Azed I always say to myself that the words are so weird that one needs help. You may say that I should persevere and try to do it all from the wordplay and only then look up the word to see if it exists, and yes I do sometimes do that, but the wordplay itself also often makes reference to some impossible words and I’d never get anywhere. At least I would. but it would take me about ten times as long as I normally spend.
As always everything, with its neat clueing, is perfectly clear after the event.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.