Solving time: 4:42

Araucaria has had a monopoly on the prize crosswords in recent weeks, so this was a nice change and probably my quickest time for a Paul puzzle. The theme was fairly straightforward, comprising 5 clues consisting of single words backwards (“kcul?”, “ylper?”, “ytud?”, “eert?” and “tew?”), leading to solutions with ‘wordplay in the answer’. I was helped enormously by spotting the answer to the longest of these (“kcul?”) immediately, and by knowing the phrase ‘neap tide’ which I solved next.

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Not being an expert on Azed xmas specials, can’t tell if this is par for the course or a lot harder. In any event, I needed to resort to an email friend (PB) to get jump-started. Must be said that this is a tour de force in terms of integration. And I wonder if the misprinted letters themselves form a theme somehow (anagram or acrostic). The first task in solving is to identify the quadrants… so I’ve organized this blog thus. But still came up short in 3 clues… Thanks to Andrew and Roland now cleared up.

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Solving time: 19 minutes

A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle from Shed, an under-used and underrated setter on the Guardian, in my opinion.  Always a nice mixture of excellent clues with one or two twists on old favourites (e,g, torchlit in 1 across, and the working for 17 across)..

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I enjoyed this puzzle, which featured several satisfyingly penny-dropping clues – primarily due to some well disguised definitions and very natural surfaces. The Cinephile cross-reference at 5D led me up a couple of blind alleys too. Just a pity that I didn’t get around to solving this until the evening (Uncle Sam Time), so was unable to post earlier in the day.

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