I found this very easy – one of my rare sub-10 minute solves I think – but that’s not really the point as there’s a very clever piece of grid wizardry going on here. The unchecked letters in the 1st, 5th, 11th and 15th rows contain all the letters of the alphabet in order. I know nothing at all about filling grids but that looks to me like quite an achievement. I haven’t commented much because many of the clues were quite straightforward but I thought this was another terrific puzzle from a terrific setter. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time about 10-12 minutes altogether in 3 short sessions. I was trying to look at it while on a conference call at work, but somebody asked me a question and I didn’t know what they said. I suppose I should have hung up really – one should get one’s priorities right!

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We’ve just added a page giving brief details about the setters – Independent only at present, but happy to add the Guardian if someone can chip in with accurate information.  Like other ‘general information’ pages, there’s a link to it in the pale bar just above this text.

Lots of references in this, but I found it fairly straightforward, with no major problems. Enjoyable puzzle.  (Thanks, Peter, for  pointing out below that some of the names are the real names of some of the most eminent setters across all publications)

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Solving time: 64 mins, with Chambers

Not sure why this one was substantially harder than the previous week. The problems I remember a week later are finding the beer in 1A, and my daft answer at 20A. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time: 45’

I actually fell asleep solving this – not because the puzzle was boring, simply due to jet-lag (or as my aunt would say, let-jag). Probably unintended but a couple of Irish clues and cricket clues might be a way of suggesting that Ireland is doing surprisingly well at the World Cup.

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Another corker from Nestor, with lots of clever and original stuff going on. Read the rest of this entry »

Solving time: 22:12

I made heavy weather of this, especially the key long answer (16ac) and the top left corner, and I can’t explain 4dn.

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The usual flawless puzzle from Phi

Solving time: 12 mins

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Solving time: 33:07

I found this tough going, and in the end had to resort to the dictionary to finish it as there were a couple of words I’d never heard of. Also a lot of dodgy clues, unless there’s some subtlety I’m missing!

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Solving time: 43 minutes – and should have been faster

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Solving time:  Most of the day!

I was having to dip in and out of this between hospital appointments today and I found this experience very tough going.  Like my Co-blogger today, there is one clue that defeats me, though I have the answer from the definition.   Scorpion is one of the more ferocious Indy setters and all his previous puzzles have caused me problems.  In this one, I felt that there was a mix of really clever clues but there were one or two that I thought too clever for their own good.  However, overall it was a worthy challenge and one that was tougher than today’s Guardian, which was dreary and dull.  Off now to wrestle with the Times, masochist that I am!

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I have to admit that Chifonie is not by favourite setter, and in my opinion, this puzzle has too many loose definitions/wordplay, and at least one clue I can’t parse (see below).

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The usual satisfying fare.

Solving time: 15 mins

* = anagram

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Another excellent puzzle by Dac and they don’t have to be hard to be good.

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