One word: wow! This was an incredible construction on a par with the original Quads from 2015. The subterfuge of the mutilated definitions was a new one for me, and each stage of solving was a...
Maybe I happened to stumble on a good place to start solving this, but having rather slogged my way through the last numerical, this one was much closer to plain sailing. My preconceptions about what...
A gentler one this week after last week's humdinger. I enjoyed this; the penny drop and endgame was quite satisfying so thanks to Ottorino. Thanks also for educating me with something I never knew...
Well that was a nice straightforward puzzle this week. I particularly liked the clueing this time round - my favourite being 20 across. Some of the misprints were very well hidden too. Thanks Little...
I can't find another thread so here goes. What an absolutely brilliant endgame! How setters can achieve such complex constructions so elegantly, I will never know. The denouement went a long way...
A pleasing, if gentle, challenge after previous frustrating weeks. A week’s holiday in early June (much enjoyed) led to us abandoning 4505 with 98% done and little time to tackle 4506. Well done to...
After last week's Sabre I was expecting something simple - wrong! Was head scratching and cold solving for ages until I rumbled the verse and then had the huge PDM. Thought the 18 opposing pairs were...
This had all the elements to make it extremely daunting: Sabre - check; unconventional grid - check; long, complicated preamble - check! And it lived up to its billing. How does Sabre manage to make...
After last week's rather harsh welcome home from holiday (perhaps I should have taken two weeks), this was much smoother and more welcome. An interesting mixture of clues, some less obvious to me than...
I've only just started to look at this. It immediately occurs to me that those fourth powers are also square numbers so surely they will satisfy both properties. But this isn't allowed according to...
After being too tired to make much progress on this last night, I made the most of a delayed flight this morning and got there in the end (in both senses!). This was a clever construction, with mostly...
I shuddered when I saw the name of the setter and I was totally wrong. This puzzle is extremely approachable and I felt that the clues were very generous at times. A newcomer should not be afraid of...
I haven't been able to find another thread so here goes ... I thought this was quite a straightforward offering this week; the clues didn't take too long to solve. There will be some argument about...
Normally I'm a bit wary of circular grids, but with some fortunate early clue solves I stumbled on the theme, including all of the message from the hidden letters. It's an understatement to say that...
The clue-solving was tough work in places and I spent an age somewhat baffled ... but a nice couple of PDMs brought it all to an enjoyable conclusion. Thanks tnap :-)
This was quite tricky to make progress with lots of cold-solving required, but the penny dropped in about three stages with a final satisfying clang. Another puzzle contributing to the high quality of...
A clever treatment of, for me, an unfamiliar theme. It's scarcely possible to believe that the letter changes in the grid can exist and give the required text. I really liked several of the across...
