Rufus at his finest: an excellent set of misleading and satisfying cryptic definitions and some devious wordplay as well. As per usual Rufus’s surfaces are coherent, sensible and, as a result, often hard to crack. Needed to look up a thing or two which is unusual for Rufus as well.

Read the rest of this entry »

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed

The Independent continued its trend of trying out less well-known compilers for the Monday puzzle. Radian was another new compiler for me, although I don’t know if it’s actually a debut crossword or not. The theme was plants, so how well you fared with the puzzle depended to an extent on how green-fingered you are. Read the rest of this entry »