Puzzles, posts, news and general word-chat.

Diabolically Arcane

Bingo. You’ve reached David Astle dot com, a carnival of words, puzzles and more words. Welcome aboard, and have fun.

Loading tweet...

Gruntling Results

16 November, 2017

So many sipid clues to sample – thanks for the Storm of contrary clues. I was gruntled all week, just seeing the wordplay appear.

Hard to single out a winner as well, as the hit-rate wasn’t effable. To pick out a few humdingers, I thought the best clue for surface and concision (and a brilliant dovetailing of wordplay and definition) went to that recidivist, SK:

NOCUOUS: Commonsense to save odd coupon cutting

Followed closely by SR’s grisly story:

MACULATE: Spotted male cat playing with mouse heart

Then there was Mauve’s amazing discovery, adding (and subtracting) an R to the target word:

EVITABLE: Avertible crash kills redhead

On the short-and-sweet side of the ledger, I loved Jon’s work:

RULY: Certainly not headstrong!

Plus Sam’s classy brace:

SIPID: Tasty dips I prepared

PECCABLE: Air-kissable? Wrong!

But in the spirit of contrary, looking for the best treble, with three consistent confections, I dip my lid to LA’s list, which almost reads like a noir synopsis:

EVITABLE - Bill detected in immorality – final outcome uncertain

KEMPTWaste reduced following introduction of kitchen tidy

WIELDY - Moderate, ye wild winds!

Thanks to all players for your gruntling work. Thanks also to SK for rebooting the Gargantuan prize – a simpatico gesture. Great as well to see some familiar names back at the forge, and look forward to more semantic shenanigans in 2018.

And LA – let me know your snail mail, and will send your humungous parcel soon. Yours nocently and not ungratefully, DA

comments powered by Disqus

Rewording The Brain

Focus & memory, lateral leaps & logic - every aspect of cognitive health is lit in Rewording The Brain, a book revelling in how puzzles boost your brain. Part 2 equips your brain to conquer any twisty clue, plus the wild crossword finale. Pop science meets neural gameplay, Rewording is rewarding, and out now.

Medal

Rewording The Brain

Care to renew your noodle? Rewording The Brain explores the latest neural studies, seeing how puzzles (and twisty clues) boost your neurons. Part 2 helps you crack such clues, and prep the grey matter for the crossword showcase to finish. More here

read more +

101 Weird Words (and 3 Fakes)

From Ambidextrous to Zugwang, this mini-dictionary teems with rare or alluring words, plus bonus riddles, puzzles and fun word-facts. Dictionary detective will also nab the collection's three fakes. Ideal for late primary schoolers, or word-nuts in general.

read more +

Gargantuan Book of Words

Sneeze words. Fake pasta. Viking slang. Gargantuan is a jumbo jumble of puzzles & games, mazes & quizzes, tailor-made for that wordy wonderkid in your life. Or anyone in love with letters, secret codes, puns, rhymes, emoji & all things languagey. More here 

read more +

Recent Comments

Riddledom Rave

If you missed my riddle chat with Richard Fidler, then feel free to slurp the podcast at http://ab.co/1I9t1x5

Text-speak is creeping into Scrabble. Where do you sit?
OBVS I'm fine with it
Entrenched stuff - like LOL and OMG - but no more.
Words With Friends, maybe. Scrabble, no
Let the 'real' dictionaries decide first
Just the handy stuff, like FAQ and EUW
I mean, WTF?! No way
See Results