Greetings from my lakeside retreat near Ottawa where it seems to have gone from July to October overnight. Fortunately, the weather is forecast to return to a more seasonable state today.
I got off to a very slow start with the puzzle today. In fact, on my first read through, I solved only a single across clue, that being the final one (27a). However, the down clues came to the rescue and in the end I managed to complete the puzzle in a reasonable time. I have no idea who the setter may be.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Some solvers might find today’s cryptic crossword is * for difficulty, the only obscure word being a lurker. I wasn’t one of those solvers, which is why I’ve rated it **.
If any clues are baffling you, hopefully you will find éclaircissement below.
Greetings from my lakeside retreat near Ottawa, where today is a provincial holiday in Ontario as well as several other provinces.
Today’s puzzle had a decidedly more modern feel to it than usual with many cultural references that certainly post-date my generation.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Welcome to Monday and today’s cryptic crossword, one of those with long answers around all the sides, which can lead to solvers experiencing quite different overall solving times based on how many of the long ones they get straight away. (Zero in my case; I needed crossing letters for all of them.) Hints for and explanations of answers are below. Do leave a comment, especially if you haven’t commented before. Don’t worry about it being ‘too late’: many of us often do the crossword later in the day, and all comments get read no matter what time (or even day) they are made.
Did anybody else see Friday’s episode of Countdown? If you haven’t, it’s recommended for two reasons: it was a particularly good episode, with two fantastic players of the game, and one of those players was a Telegraph crossword setter.
Greetings from my lakeside retreat near Ottawa where we have been experiencing mostly hot, sunny weather. I cope by following advice I have often received over the years to go jump in a lake.
I got off to a slow start with today’s puzzle but once I had established a foothold, the solve proceeded rapidly. This may be the work of X-Type who seems to have taken possession of the Monday slot.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
We’ve almost made it to the end of the school year — and indeed the end of primary school for this household, with just one week to go. We’ve seen the Year 6 musical, and last week the 10-year-old had a three-day residential trip with activities including caving and gorge-scrambling. This week there’s an assembly, a church service, a party, presents for teachers, and probably something else I’ve forgotten. I’m lucky to be in a position to attend most of those.
However fitting that in means starting work earlier today, so I’m unlikely to have time to add illustrations to this review before it goes live, for which apologies — but I’m hoping to pop back at lunchtime and retrospectively sneak a few in then.
Greetings from Ottawa, where we are (depending on one’s point of view) enjoying/suffering from a heat wave with temperatures in the thirties.
I found today’s puzzle to be rather difficult and it took far longer than my normal time to crack (thus no illustrations today). However, that may just be due to me being overtired and not on top of my game.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Good morning. It’s been a busy time in our household, with the 10-year-old’s final half-term of primary school featuring many additional events and trips. Last week’s induction day at their next school seemed to go well (they got in the house they wanted!), and we survived the second-hand clothes scrum at the evening event for parents. This week we get to see the leavers performing the musical they’ve been rehearsing for weeks. Once parts were allocated, the children came home with costume requirements — at which point we found ourselves wondering why on earth a tweed jacket to fit a 10-year-old would even exist, let alone where to acquire one cheaply; my mum came to the rescue with a great find on a second-hand website.
On to today’s crossword. Hints and explanations for each clue are below, with definitions underlined and the answers hidden inside the Will you never learn? boxes — though don’t click that one, obviously. Do leave a comment sharing how you found the crossword, which clues you particularly liked, if any of my explanations aren’t helpful enough, or you can’t work out what a video or picture has to do with its clue. Please see the etiquette guide for how things are done round here.
Greetings from my lakeside retreat outside Ottawa, where summer has made a dramatic entry, with high winds and tornado warnings and temperatures forecast to reach the mid-thirties today.
The puzzle did not appear to me to be the work of any of our recent setters so I will not venture a guess. However, it should appeal to fans of anagrams and word search.
In the hints below, underlining identifies precise definitions and cryptic definitions, FODDER is capitalized, and indicators are italicized. The answers will be revealed by clicking on the ANSWER buttons.
Please leave a comment telling us what you thought of the puzzle.
Good morning. Today’s crossword felt like *** difficulty to me: I got only a few answers in my first pass and then it was slow-going to fill the rest. But it doesn’t contain any obscure answers and most of you lot are way better at anagrams than I am, so I’m guessing you’ll find it more straightforward than I did, and I’ve rated it ** accordingly. Thank you to the setter, I’m guessing X-Type, for the challenge.