QPP 125 – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
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QPP 125

Quarterly Prize Puzzle (Jan 2024)

Mixed Doubles by Prolixic

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Why not have a go at our latest Quarterly Prize Puzzle?

The winner will receive their choice of any of the Telegraph Crossword Books.

Please note that, due to punitive postal charges, while the competition is open to all, the prize is only available to UK solvers.

A review will follow after the closing date (21st Jan 2024).

The competition is now closed

The puzzle is available by clicking on the above grid.

Please read the instructions carefully.

We’ve left this post open for comments, but if you don’t want your comment to be deleted then do not provide any help for other solvers or mention any detail about the puzzle, especially references to individual clues, until after the closing date.


4 comments on “QPP 125

  1. Congratulations to Prolixic on a beautifully crafted piece of cruciverbal engineering. Plenty of challenges including clever misleads, most of the across clues having the same enumeration for first and second word, and a few novelties (for me) that presented obstacles but were all ‘gettable’ and quickly confirmed by references. Having made a cautious start, my confidence in filling the grid improved as more checkers became available – whilst keeping alert for potential pitfalls! I do have some thoughts on individual clues which I will withhold for now, as instructed by Mr K.
    My entry will be dropped into the BD hat of fortune once I have double checked all my mixed doubles!

  2. This is an amazing construction! Took a long time to understand the directions and crack the first of the clues. I have answers to most, but there are a few a can’t parse and some others I can’t do, but have enough to generate an answer. Which may or may not be correct!

  3. Huge respect is due to Prolixic for a stunning creation. It took quite a while for me to get started but then it all came together slowly but surely. I still had a handful of unparsed clues when I had finished but more cogitation revealed all. I’ve done the count three times with the same result so I am going to bite the bullet now and submit.

  4. For the prize puzzle, I usually try to solve it on the last day. I found this to be an amazing and brilliant creation of Prolixic that was highly entertaining. It took me some hours but eventually I had a completed grid to my satisfaction. I had to read and reread the instructions many times carefully with regard to ‘before and after’ and ‘first word and second word’ before submitting my answer.

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