Guardian 24,961 (Puck)

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. Across 1,16D LONDON BRONCOS: LONDON … Read more >>

Independent 7307/Dac

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 … Read more >>

Guardian 24,960 / Araucaria

Lots of ducks in today’s crossword – yet another rushed post from me in rather awkward circumstances, and I’m afraid I don’t get 12 across or 7 down Across 1. SCALE UP LE[vel] … Read more >>

Financial Times 13,335 / Styx

This was mostly straightforward, but there were some creative elements here, noted below.  Across 1 REPORT REP (salesman) OR T (“agent”‘s conclusion) 4 SCREWS UP CREW (ship’s company) in PUSS (cat) reversed 10 … Read more >>

Guardian 24959 – Paul

Paul certainly knows how to make a theme exciting, right from 1Across to 22Down.  In between, he sprinkled his wit and humour liberally. Challenging in parts but mostly very very entertaining. Bravo, Paul, … Read more >>

Guardian 24,958 / Rufus

The usual Rufus combination of cryptic [not too many] and double definitions and elegant and witty surfaces. Across 7   PHILATELY: PHI [anagram of HIP] + LATELY 8   QUICK: double definition [‘quick’ = ‘living’ … Read more >>

Independent 7304 by Hypnos

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I finished this fairly quickly, with only the NE corner giving me a few problems. There was an unusually high number of &lits, of … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1,046 (07/03/10)

Blimey this was a tough one. That, plus most of the week spent at a conference means this week’s posting is a little late. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across … Read more >>

Azed 1971

The usual very satisfactory offering from Azed. I have learned not to look too far for wonderful surfaces, but to admire the faultless construction of his clues. Across 2 J ASS — one … Read more >>