Independent on Sunday 1,438 by Nitsy

Please accept my apologies for being a little bit behind with this one. A full blog post will replace this once I get back from helping 75+ kids run around a park and get some coffee inside me.

Admin: I don’t know what has prevented Simon from returning. I have added an analysis of the clues but will leave it up to others to comment on them.

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Guardian Prize 27,298 / Crucible

This is the third Crucible puzzle on the theme of the evening’s event that I have blogged – and I’m certainly not complaining. Three years ago, Crucible clued LAST NIGHT OF THE PROMS … Read more >>

Enigmatic Variations No.1294 – Something Wrong by Kea

“Twelve answers are entered with SOMETHING WRONG, namely, a misprint of one letter; wordplay in their clues leads to the misprinted form. The correct letters in clue order spell a hint to the theme. Solvers must draw four thematic items (not necessarily in the form described) including all the misprints and 24 other letters. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.

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Independent 9,649 by Phi

The usual utterly sound and satisfactory crossword from Phi. As always, while doing it I found some of the clues a bit tricky, yet afterwards the reason for this was not obvious.

Definitions in maroon, underlined.

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Guardian 27,302 – Nutmeg

Characteristic elegant and witty clueing from Nutmeg today. I don’t usually pay a lot of attention to surface readings, but there are some good ones here: hardly anything that “could only be a … Read more >>