i Cryptic Crossword 953 Hypnos

A nice end to the week from Hypnos, which a good mixture of easy and harder clues. That said, to my everlasting shame, I failed to get 27ac.

COD? 13d – ‘Bobby’s best friend? (6,3)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/02/independent-no-6981/

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i Cryptic Crossword 952 Merlin

Pretty tough, but not impenetrable like some we’ve had of late. I wasn’t that fond of 12ac, which I’m sure was very clever, but with both an obscure answer and pretty odd wordplay, pretty unfair. See also 25ac – Bush hasn’t been president for an age now.

I did, though, like 20ac, which is my COD – ‘Grant vehicle coupling with university friend (4,8)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/09/independent-6987-by-merlin/

i Cryptic Crossword 951 Phi

Phi gave us one of his sort-of-themed puzzles again today;- fortunately I got all those intersecting two-worders in the corners on the first pass which made things afterwards a lot easier than they might have been…  All went smoothly until the last four which took a lot of head scratching and a bit of dictionary trawling. Was the clue for ‘zeugma’ itself a zeugma?  I’ve no idea!

With honorable mentions to 14ac, 4d and 16d, my COD goes to 17ac: Get back regarding voucher that’s not viable (6)

The original complete blog is here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/06/independent-6985phi/

i Cryptic Crossword 950 Morph

Pretty tough, with too many that I needed Fifteensquared to fully explain.

COD? 14d – ‘Get revenge on pals, cryptically? (6,4)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/12/independent-6990-by-morph/

i Cryptic Crossword 949 Quixote

The usual gentle start to the week, with the exception of 25d which you either knew or you didn’t. I didn’t…

COD? Amongst many good clues, 14ac – ‘Meeting tight-lipped person, this paper’s boss cried out (9)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/12/independent-on-sunday-995-by-quixote-8-mar-2009/

Edited to note:

Just noticed Fifteensquared is down at the mo. In case this continues throughout the day, here’s a link to Google’s cache of the same page:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qpusjK08iHMJ:www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/12/independent-on-sunday-995-by-quixote-8-mar-2009/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk

i Cryptic Crossword 942 Dac

February 15^th 2014

Undoubtedly harder than usual for a Dac,  probably because it was a double pangram – with every letter of the alphabet appearing at least twice.  So, as happens very often on a Saturday, there was ‘something going on’, so to speak.

Several elegant clues, amongst which was my COD – 3d: US state hasn’t severed viable link (10)

The original blog, is here: http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/04/independent-6959dac/

i Cryptic Crossword 947 Bannsider

As the original blogger said, tough, very tough. I’m not going to finish early enough to get the blog out in time, so here’s a link to the 2009 blog, while I struggle onwards. 🙂

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/06/independent-6980bannsider-prize-puzzle-28-02-09/

Edited to add: Well, I’ve finished. And it was a bit much, wasn’t it, as evidenced by all the questions regarding the clues in the old blog. Less like this, and more like yesterday’s, please.

i Cryptic Crossword 946 Punk

Another excellent puzzle from Punk. Inventive, with a nice mixture of easy and hard clues. I’m not sure, personally, that 20d really works, but maybe that’s just me as others seemed to like it. I won’t tell you how long I struggled over 9ac, having persistently misread adversary as anniversary. Strange the tricks the mind plays.

COD? With honours to 6ac, 21ac and 16d, my nomination goes to 4d – ‘Opposite sides hiding a woman’s secret drink (5)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/02/26/independent-6978punk/

i Cryptic Crossword 945 Dac

I must to admit to being defeated today, by the combination of 1ac and 2d. The latter I should have got, the former I never would have. Never mind.

Lots of ticks by the clues, but my COD goes to 22ac – ‘Like 10, aunt is upset by the cad behaving badly (10)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/11/independent-6989-by-dac/

i Cryptic Crossword 944 Virgilius

Another nice crossword from Virgilius, with a well flagged theme to help us along with one or two.

COD? 6d – ‘Is love a subject of chemical variations? (8)’.

The 2009 blog is complete.

http://www.fifteensquared.net/2009/03/10/independent-6988virgilius/