It seems like this must be one of those things that shows up repeatedly in cryptics, but if so I’ve never seen it (or, just as likely, have seen it and forgotten). GARDEN HOSE – I’d never heard of the forest of Arden, and only found it by googling after I got the answer with crossers. Like flashling, I’m not thrilled by the imprecise use of “hearts” in 4dn — I would expect that to mean the centermost parts of the words, leading to UNHIG.

I do not necessarily endorse, support, sanction, encourage, verify or agree with the opinions or statements of any information or other content in the comments on this site and do not in any way guarantee their accuracy or reliability. If you think your favourite Quiz, Crossword or Puzzle should be listed here don’t hesitate to contact us. I send my very best wishes to Colin Gumbrell at this time, as I’m sure do crossword enthusiasts everywhere. e. standard cryptic puzzles) have been attempted, though almost all have at least one word blank; 5 of the 'Ximenes' puzzles are completely blank, the remainder being solved in varying degrees (but none completely); the previous owner clearly did not stoop to looking at the solution pages! If this is the way the Everyman puzzle is going to be from now on, I won’t be wasting any more time on it.The answer to this is DECAMETRE (defined by `11 yards’) and clearly intended to be a soundalike (homophone) for DECK A METER (Adorn a device for measuring…). I found this difficult – it took me more than double what I normally reckon to take on a more challenging Everyman and twice my time for Boatman’s prize, which I completed straight after! The Crossword Solver is designed to help users to find the missing answers to their crossword puzzles. After seeing your description of this puzzle, I went and did it and also went back to try some previous Everymans. It seems the Observer had to find a crossword setter at short notice, which is some kind of excuse for the offering above, but it’s still the worst crossword puzzle I’ve ever seen in a supposedly quality newspaper.

I stopped for a while when I was at Sussex, as I switched to the Independent whose prize crossword yielded a steady stream of dictionaries. I read somewhere (probably on the fifteensquared blog, which I find very useful) that there was a lot of grumbling when Colin Gumbrell started. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. I noticed a ‘Rozalyn’ and a ‘Rosaleen’ listed among this week’s winners – would either of those be our esteemed and prolific commenter ‘Roz’?I was thinking recently that it’s been a while since I posted anything about crosswords, and today I got a nice surprise that gives me an excuse for a short post. I agree about the recent standard: the clues have been frustratingly imprecise: poor definitions and/or indicators, and an over-use of solutions embedded in the clue, but above all they aren’t entertaining: ponderous and over-literal: none of the sparkling wit of the predecessor. This popularity is helped in no small measure by a wealth of cheap flights from most parts of the country, . Thanks for the blog, I also thought it was BRAS(s) , two very long complete anagrams for Jay’s list. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

As if the world weren’t crazy enough, yesterday the Observer served up this as its Everyman Crossword puzzle No. The Oldie has two crosswords, of differing levels of difficulty, labelled `Genius’ and `Moron’, respectively. The views presented here are personal and not necessarily those of my employer (or anyone else for that matter). As a subscriber to the Azed Slip detailing the outcomes of the monthly Azed crossword puzzle competition, I knew a week or so ago that I’d got a VHC (`Very Highly Commended’) in Azed No. This is an extremely popular crossword puzzle in which for sure you will pass some great time and also keep your brain sharp with all the interesting crossword clues found on each day on The Guardian Everyman Crossword puzzles.My moan at 6dn about the fact that it’s a CD is a voice crying in the wilderness: lots of people, including some good setters, like them.

I still have no idea how 10a is parsed - I can see the definition but have no idea how it's derived from "top spy"!When I came back to cryptic crosswords again recently after a long hiatus, I started doing the daily puzzles in the Guardian. I couldn’t work out the link to 2D for ERNE – it had to be that from the crossers and definition…so thanks for the explanation(s) above. Yes, it’s certainly better than last week (which isn’t difficult), but not really up to Colin’s standard. This satisfying new collection, published as the crossword celebrates its 80th anniversary, gathers together 100 of the best puzzles in the series. I can imagine that they would need to proficient in both areas, ie understanding the rules, but also prepared to look outside the square and challenge.