Reputable clues of variable styles. Enjoy some of the world’s wryest.
1. Zip through a cultural performance (5) _ _ E _ _
2. Flood engineers have canal (9) _ _ A _ A _ C _ _
3. Tipsy chef swallows spirit [...]
Pick of the world’s cryptic puzzles. How many can you unravel before the answers are posted in a few days’ time?
1. Distant rogue approaches New Orleans (10) _ _ P _ _ _ O _ _ _
2. Like mistletoe, it is a hit when put [...]
Apologies if I’ve not posted any of your comments – I’m lolling on a beach a thousand miles from the nearest chatroom. In the meantime wrestle with these peerless clues, culled from puzzles around the world.
1. Cohabitants prepared bullets or boomerangs (9) _ _ O _ M _ [...]
More majestic cryptic clues from mainly UK solvers to help whet your wits.
1. Eggs fit for Croesus! (3) _ _ E
2. Royal autobiography appearing episodically? (3,2,3) _ _ E / _ _ / _ N _
3. Open late to make quick [...]
Solve half of these clues, and you’re no tyro. Solve all: pure pro.
1. Drill team altered boring routine (9) _ _ E _ _ _ I _ L
2. I eat after ten (6) _ O _ I _ _
3. Dreadfully unstable? [...]
How many of these exquisite clues from the world’s cryptics can you solve?
1. Time spent at audition (4) _ _ _ K
2. Hefty cow loses firm figure (7) _ E _ _ _ T _
3. Switch for sale? (2,5) _ _ [...]
To celebrate the cream of cryptics, can you crack any of these virtuoso clues from around the globe?
1. Toady’s refusal to accept edited copy (9) S _ _ _ _ _ A _ _
2. Native Americans get lost endlessly (4) _ O _ [...]
Enjoy these eight fine clues from the cryptic archives, largely conjured by compilers of The Guardian, The Independent and The Times of the UK. A few sample letters should give you a toehold.
1. Forthright article on new TV series (9) _ _ S _ _ _ I _ [...]
Over the month of Jan I’m aiming to build an elongated Hall of Fame. All entries are those cryptic clues I’ve come across in my 20 years of obsessive crossword solving – the best of the world’s brain-busters.
Inclusion may boil down to elegance, brevity, bravura or sheer novelty. Rather than supply the answers side-by-side, I’ll [...]