This morning’s Independent puzzle doesn’t appear to have been uploaded yet.  I indulged in a spot of insider trading over the weekend to obtain a copy and have prepared a blog; but I shall wait for the real thing to appear before I post it, so that I can be certain that I’ve blogged the right crossword.

A nice challenge from Nitsy, which took me a couple of sittings to finish. No queries with any of the answers though which is always a good sign. And special plaudits for the brilliant political anagram at 8D.

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Here we are with Monk again and a very nice crossword that was fun to solve with the answers falling reasonably regularly, though I slowed to a halt at the last couple.  But here’s the thing: I see no Nina or theme.

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It is Friday today, Phi’s customary slot.

I worked quite steadily through this one and, on the strength of the tight wordplay, was able to complete the puzzle fairly quickly and unaided, just using Google to confirm 4. My favourite clues today were 11 for its cheeky surface reading and 21 for its combination of anagram and & lit.

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Tyrus is a setter more frequently seen in the Independent at weekends than during the week.  When he appears in the week, bloggers tend to say they found his puzzles difficult.  I’m going to keep up that tradiiton.

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Yesterday ‘the Thatcher tribute puzzle’ was referred to but K’s D said that we could rest easy (and he was quite right). I have to be out later, so got up well in time for the devilish concoction that had been prepared for the day of the Thatcher funeral, but simply found the usual Dac. Lovely it was, too, but not devilish. Several of these clues have the smoothest most elegant surfaces. But that’s just par for the course with Dac. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Joyce’s turn this week. We’ve been blogging for over a year now but this is only the second Punk puzzle that we have crossed swords (let alone footballs) with. We always enjoy his puzzles as Paul in Another Place as they normally bring a smile to our faces or a groan of appreciation for his audacity.

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So we start the week with Quixote, slightly odd looking grid I thought when I opened the paper.

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A very enjoyable Sunday crossword from Poins, with at least a couple of chuckles along the way. Whilst I think I’ve almost explained everything, one or two bits and pieces didn’t quite click for me, though I’m sure readers can help out.

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So Grand National day, so is there a horsey theme to today’s puzzle? And if there was would I actually notice it?

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It’s Friday and it’s a puzzle by Phi so all’s well in the crossword world.

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As we always expect nowadays, a thoroughly good workout from Anax that I thought was, for him, on the marginally easy side. The clues are tight and efficient and some of them quite excellent.

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As usual, a great puzzle from Dac with excellent surfaces, ingenious clue constructions and a good mix of fairly straightforward clues and some which challenged the grey matter.

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It is Tuesday morning, so you can never quite be sure which compiler you will have to pit your wits against, but you can be almost sure that you will have some theme or other to grapple with.

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I’ve not come across Alchemi before, but this seemed to be very much in the tradition of reasonably gentle Quixote Monday puzzles. There were a few where the wordplay took a bit of working out e.g. 13, 22.
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