Tuesday 28 January 2014

Spread 'em

So it would seem that word has been spreading about these puzzles; if you're new here, welcome! I'll bring you up to speed on what you missed:
weekly puzzles, vowellesses alternating with conventional (and challenging...and sometimes NSFW) freestyle crosswords.

One recent visitor even felt it necessary to shout out last week's puzzle by shortlisting it for his puzzle of the week. Too cool! It rightfully lost out to an exquisite Doug Peterson Stumper, but I was honoured all the same. Plus, nice to have a few more solvers drop by because of it. Now, you might have been thinking that I haven't really been trying very hard to attract more solvers, since I make somewhat unapproachable puzzles what with the inscrutable toughness and the odd unquestionably tasteless entry or clue. Well, you'd be right; my goal is not to appeal to a wide range of solvers but to rather to offer demanding and particular solvers the kinds of puzzles that I like to solve and that I wish there were more of. I like writing puzzles like that and I like running the blog because I can have that selfish prerogative. That said, without at least a few solvers running these makes no sense at all, so it's always nice to be able to share my work in the hopes that a few of you will find what's been missing in your weekly solving regimen.

Speaking of your solving regimen, it should include Erik, Andy, and Neville. Andy's most recent puzzle is particularly clever, and impressively executed. Lots of fun stuff (i.e. stuff to steal for my wordlist mwa ha ha) in there.

As for this week's puzzle, it's another vowelless. Puzzle is provided both with and without the answer lengths given as hints. Much much harder without.

NOTE: The letter Y does not appear in any answer

More words, crossed and otherwise, next Tuesday

Puzzle: Vowelless #6
Rating: XW-14A
Downloads:
PUZ (with lengths)
PDF (with lengths)
PUZ (no hints)
PDF (no hints)

Full Answers

9 comments:

e.a. said...

these keep getting better and better!

Howard B said...

Yep, this was quite awesome.
Very interesting right side there...

Not being an Apple person, 45-D was a complete vowelless mystery, requiring a visit to the answer page.
(But I'll cede you that one).

Anonymous said...

Having trouble with the PDF version. When printong, the last few columns on the right side of the grid are off the page. If sized down to 75% of actual, too small to read. Solutions any one?

Christian said...

The clue for 15-down is one of my all-time favourites. Great work!

Bananarchy said...

Anonymous, I'll try to whip up a better version in a bit. Alternatively, email me (or leave your address here if you like) and I'll send you a printable version of just the grid.

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for the grid suggestion. kjbtlh@hotmail.com

Unknown said...

Why did I get 16 Down before even finishing reading the clue? I have to check the answer key, because the intersection on 57 across and 47 down isn't sitting well with me. Thanks for the fun departure from my NYT rut!

Unknown said...

Oh, I see my confusion. It was a word I'd never read before! Good thing I trusted my instincts about 57 across.

jefe said...

Loved all the long downs! 44A and 55D were unknown to me, but the crossings were gettable. Struggled in the SE, especially with 46A but once I figured out 15D the rest of the tough ones fell like dominoes.

Keep it up!