A rather work-a-day puzzle, I fear. 1A provided an easy entry, and then gravity pretty much took care of the remainder.  11A raised a smile, but I was underwhelmed by 18D on a couple of scores.

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Another enjoyable, well clued puzzle from Quixote. The south-west corner took longest, for no good reason – just couldn’t think of the right words for a while. H was pleased to see ‘demotic’ make an appearance, having only recently learnt the word from another puzzle.

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An interesting themed puzzle with some tricky clues. The special instructions refer to different rules for 13 and 15, and that is the way in to the theme. Read the rest of this entry »

An unusual Thursday appearance for Dac, caused by the jiggling necessary to fit in Virgilius’s St Patrick’s Day crossword on Wednesday, so this must be one of the gentler Thursday offerings; but surely as good as any. Read the rest of this entry »

Monday Prize Crossword on 8 March 2010
In the scheme of things I do on a Monday, I would tackle the puzzles in the following order : Times, Guardian, Financial Times and Sunday’s Independence (since it is not available on a printable format and I have to wait for someone to type out the clues). Imagine my sense of deja vu when I came to 22Down as I had just solved the identical clue minutes ago. Tsk tsk Mr Squires, your cardex system of ensuring you do not repeat a clue slipped up ! Other than that, another expected display of smooth surfaces and slick clueing.

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Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of March 6
Here we have two clues with, if I am understanding them correctly, cryptic containment indicators, 6D and 23D. Interesting. I like the latter one.

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