Skipjack always provides fresh and entertaining puzzles and his third offering is no exception. Soup is back with an alphabetical jigsaw which presents the clues as rhyming couplets in the way Araucaria used to. That is quite an achievement! Maize provides us with another very enjoyable puzzle brimming with inventive ideas. Lohengrin’s excellent debut puzzle is very tightly clued and an example to setters everywhere. Euston’s second puzzle boasts super-smooth surfaces and a variety of very clever clueing devices.
The second puzzle from Rodolfo has a slight theme and is a good example of precise clueing. Bombadil makes his first appearance here. His puzzle is a paragon of accuracy and fairness, and also jolly good fun! Windsurfer’s third puzzle is a very enjoyable challenge with a ghost theme. Wiglaf’s puzzle is conclusive proof that it is possible to be very creative while adhering to Ximenean principles. Euston’s third puzzle is challenging with some very ingenious misdirections. Bear has produced a very enjoyable debut puzzle which is great fun to solve. Wolfgang’s puzzle is also a debut which shows that he has a good feeling for invention and technique. Another new setter, Starhorse, has provided a very entertaining puzzle with extremely neat wordplay and nicely deceptive surfaces. Barmecide’s puzzle, another debut, is a challenging alphabetical jigsaw with a difference. In another promising debut, Clyde has given us a very entertaining puzzle with some amusing surfaces.
Rodolfo’s witty and entertaining third puzzle contains some very amusing political satire. Windsurfer makes a welcome return with a challenging jigsaw puzzle.The puzzle from Mucky teems with invention and is one of the best debut puzzles I have published here. Laccaria, another new setter, gives a challenging puzzle with clues that show great originality. Clyde returns with a fascinating puzzle in which many of the solutions are linked in a kind of chain. Wire is a new setter whose clues display inventiveness and have some well hidden definitions.
Fiddlesticks is another new setter. His puzzle is full of ingenious and amusing clues.
The excellent puzzle by Italicus shows that it is possible to be entertaining, adventurous and innovative while still retaining fair and accurate cryptic grammar. It has at least one clue that qualifies as that rare beast, the laugh out loud clue. Deuce has produced a puzzle with a ghost theme which abounds with creative clueing and obeys the basic rule of crossword writing: it is great fun to solve.
