Greetings from my lakeside retreat outside Ottawa where the smoke from the western wildfires has abated considerably. Last week the smoke level was higher than the maximum reading on the scale and was simply cited as 10 plus.
Once again, the puzzle was posted late to the Telegraph Puzzles site. One might think the process would be automated but the task of releasing the puzzle seems to have been assigned to the night watchman who presses the button whenever he happens to wake up from his nap.
I got off to a quick start and thought this would easily be no more than a 2* effort but I was met with heavy resistance along the eastern seaboard which sent me into 3* territory.
I’m not making any calls on who the setter might be. To me, it doesn’t feel like any of the regular setters. Whoever did set it certainly went overboard on the pun – although 2 of the 6 words in the pun fodder transpose unchanged to the answer. The answer to the pun sums up my feelings on that very well.
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.
Hello. We got back last night from an enjoyable half-term holiday. The train journey took about 6 hours and includes one of the most scenic stretches of track. Can you triangulate where we were from these pictures (click to enlarge)?
Greetings from Ottawa, where King Charles and Queen Camilla will arrive this afternoon for a quick overnight stay. Tomorrow, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne opening the new session of Parliament before they depart later in the day.
Hopefully, they will be blessed with a bit of decent weather during their visit – something that has been in short supply lately. Although we did experience a warm, sunny day yesterday, the weather has been unseasonably cold and rainy for the past couple of weeks. I read with envy Senf’s accounts of the warm temperatures in Western Canada which would normally arrive here a couple of days later. However, lately they have failed to make an appearance. He must either be hoarding the warm weather or perhaps he has forwarded it by Canada Post.
I found today’s puzzle more challenging than recent offerings. I did enjoy it although I would have enjoyed it far more if I weren’t working to deadline. It does not help that ever since the new Telegraph Puzzles website was introduced, the puzzles have invariably been posted late – sometimes by as much as 45 minutes (the delay was about 30 minutes today). This is a major inconvenience to bloggers on this side of the pond who prepare the blog the evening before it appears on Big Dave’s website. It may also, at least in part, account for the recent dearth of kitties on Friday.
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.
Hello. Today’s crossword is apparently from the anonymous member of the regular Monday trio, the one who isn’t X-Type or Twmbarlwm. Welcome especially to anybody new to cryptic crosswords: hints and explanations for each clue are below, with definitions underlined and the answers hidden behind the Told you! blobs — though don’t click that one, obviously.
Greetings from Ottawa, where we find ourselves in the midst of a gorgeous spell of weather with temperatures in the mid 20s and not forecast to hit either the sizzling highs or frigid lows that Winnipeg is expecting this week as Senf reported yesterday. It is Tulip Festival time and the beautiful blooms are everywhere. The festival is especially meaningful this year coming on the heels of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands to which the event is so closely tied having been born out of the gift of tulip bulbs from the people of the Netherlands as a gesture of thanks to Canada for our leading role in the liberation of their country and for providing sanctuary to the Dutch royal family during the Second World War.
I suspect we owe our appreciation for this puzzle to X-Type, although my setter identification skills have often been proven sadly lacking. For those like myself who are partial to cryptic definitions, this was a real treat.
I must also express my appreciation to Senf for the answer to the Quickie pun. It was a true “phone a friend” (or, rather, email a friend) situation as the river at 8d would have frozen over before I got it on my own.
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.
Hello, and happy Bank Holiday to those who have one. It’s Ilkley Carnival today, with the parade starting right as these hints go live. Both our children are among the 1000+ participating, one with their school and t’other with their dance school, each group with costumes and props in their interpretation of the theme, hoping to impress the judges.
And our church hall has re-opened after its building work, now with its floor all the same level and the distinctive ‘show home’ smell. Thank you to those who donated last year when the eldest and I climbed 2 of the 3 Peaks as part of the fundraising — with special thanks to the recently returned Steve C, who encountered some kind of blip on the payment page and inadvertently donated twice!
Anyway, to today’s crossword, which I’m presuming is by X-Type — though given I’m typing this introduction on Sunday evening before having seen the puzzle, I wouldn’t give that much credence.
Greetings from Ottawa, where spring has finally arrived heralded by the budding flowers and the arrival of hockey playoff season. On Saturday, I watched two thrilling matches. In the afternoon, our professional women’s team, the Ottawa Charge, who are fighting to make the PWHL playoffs, were assessed a penalty in the final moments of a tie game against Montreal. However, despite this obstacle, the team miraculously scored a short-handed goal with 13 seconds remaining to win the game. That evening, our professional men’s team, the Ottawa Senators, down three games to nil in their first round Stanley Cup Playoff series against Toronto, scored in the eighteenth minute of overtime to stave off elimination. The sport doesn’t get any better than that.
Although X-Type told us last week he would see us “soon-ish”, it seems that this week may be too soon as the puzzle would appear to be the work of the unknown double punner who has graced this spot several times. Might there be a new Monday rotation alternating between these two setters. If so, it would be a fine pairing.
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.
Happy Easter. Last Monday X-Type commented: “See you again, quite soon”, so I’m presuming today’s crossword is another from the same mind.
Yesterday one of the children and I got up before dawn to walk up Ilkley Moor to the Cow & Calf rocks, for the Churches Together Easter ‘Son-Rise’ service. The sun just put in an appearance between the clouds.
Greetings from Ottawa, where, as I write this on Sunday evening, we have been basking for a brief spell in some gloriously warm and sunny spring weather that Senf has so generously forwarded from Manitoba.
The clock indicates that the puzzle could not have been as difficult as my gut reaction told me. I think my gut was unduly influenced by a handful of tricky parsings that held out to the very end. The high number of anagrams and lurkers allowed speedy progress to be made early in the solve. However, despite their large number, the anagrams were so well constructed that (for me, at least) they did not detract from the puzzle.
I only identified one pun in today’s Quickie but there could well be a second that escaped me.
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. Last week I said I found the crossword harder than any recent Monday backpager, but I think today’s puzzle has topped that: by the time I’d been through all of the across clues, I’d only entered 2 answers! But YMMV — there was such a range of views on how hard last Monday’s was that it would’ve been impossible to give a rating that matched even a majority of commenters, let alone all of them. Today’s puzzle is ideally suited to fans of reversing things.
