I found this one fairly straightforward.

Solving time: 14 mins

Read the rest of this entry »

This is Punk’s third puzzle in the Indy.     He’s Paul in the Guardian, who I’ve heard praised a lot, but he’s said to be hard, and he also sets in the Times.      So I approached this with trepidation not least when seeing the first clue to a 37-letter phrase comprised just 15 letters itself.     Then, on my first run through the clues, pencilled in just one (which I later found was wrong!)

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re looking for another Independent crossword solver to join our team. You’ll need to be able to post once a week (on any weekday as we have a rota which changes each week) and if you can also chip in with the occasional Guardian puzzle to cover absences that would be great but by no means necessary. You don’t need to be technically minded to use the blog software but it definitely helps to be a confident PC/Mac user. The pay is not up to much: someone may buy you a drink at the next meet but that’s about it. If you’re interested please drop me a line: [email protected].

Read the rest of this entry »

What makes a good anagram indicator? This puzzle combines what, to me, are some excellent anagrinds and some weaker ones, so I thought I’d set out my own personal likes and dislikes.  “At sea”, ”in distress” and “terrible” are obviously fine, though it’s a shame the latter appears twice. I don’t object to nounal indicators per se, but “barge” in 11 Across doesn’t work for me – a barge, as in a shove, might make you wobble a bit, but shouldn’t knock you down unless you play for Chelsea. “Out” is not all that logical when you stop to think, but it’s an established convention. But for some reason I can’t feel the same about “perhaps”. It’s very useful to indicate an example of something, as in 19 Down, but why should 20 Across “Perhaps Cherie” mean “perhaps cherie, or eriche, or c-erihe”? Perhaps it’s just used when no more fitting indicator presents. On the plus side, 15 across’s ‘liquid’, 6 down’s “out of the ordinary” and 16 Down’s “active” were all examples of an anagrind woven into the clue to great effect.

Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time: 7:35

A fairly standard offering from Dac today: mostly straightforward clue constructions with a couple of more obscure answers/names and a bit of licence with link words. Is there a political theme going on in the long answers (RIGHT-WINGER, LABOUR-INTENSIVE, INDEPENDENT)?

Read the rest of this entry »

Apologies for the lkate post – my briadband went down and I couldn’t let anyone know!

Read the rest of this entry »