Category: Mephisto

I usually find Mike Laws to be the most difficult of the Mephisto setters, but the shape of this grid made it a bit easier. Mike set himself no small task with a 13×11 grid … Read more “Mephisto 2551 – Mike Laws”

I had to admit defeat on this one with two clues unsolved (2 and 21). Speak up if you have the right answers (and possibly the right answers for clues I got wrong elsewhere – … Read more “Mephisto 2550 – Paul McKenna”

This puzzle used a stunt which we’ve seen before – four different clues to the same answer. After periodic attempts to remember the last time, it’s emerged from some corner of my memory just in … Read more “Mephisto 2549 – Tim Moorey – repeated answers stunt repeated”

A relatively easy puzzle with a good number of clues that are no harder than appear every day in the ordinary cryptic. This is particularly true of the initial down clues where I solved the … Read more “Mephisto 2548 (28th June 2009)”

I thought this was going to be on the easy side for a Mephisto with almost two-thirds of the grid going in before having to open a dictionary. But then came a few really tricky … Read more “Mephisto 2547 – Paul McKenna”

Solving time: 58 minutes A quite tricky puzzle where Chambers was needed after something like half the time spent. For all but a couple of clues (2, 23), I managed to record the solving order: … Read more “Mephisto 2546 – Tim Moorey”

A puzzle that was as easy as the previous week’s had been difficult. It came the day after a very tough Saturday Prize Crossword that took me longer to complete! One point of interest is … Read more “Mephisto 2545 Mike Laws”

I thought this a difficult puzzle with nearly every clue requiring some access to Chambers. Indeed, most of the starter clues are simple constructions that lead to answers that have to be verified by dictionary … Read more “Mephisto 2544 Paul McKenna”

I found this the most challenging of the Mephistos of the last month or two – and it was all in the wordplay, there are some seldom-seen letter indicators and anagrindicators. I talked myself into … Read more “Mephisto 2543 – Tim Moorey”

For the second time in three puzzles this one, like 2540, is a fairly gentle Mephisto which new Mephisto solvers should find approachable. Solving time: about 20 minutes, with one dictionary look-up but also one … Read more “Mephisto 2542 – calling Mephisto Virgins …”