Financial Times 16,366 by ZAMORCA

Some Monday morning fun with ZAMORCA… Some nice clues here, with a lack of straight double definitions, and some great surfaces. Some of the parsing was a bit fiddly, but enjoyable nonetheless. Thanks … Read more >>

Everyman 3,820

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3820. Everyman seems to be settling into a generally straightforward style, with the trademark pairing of long answers. ACROSS 1 YOU DON’T SAY Liberal excluded from US … Read more >>

Azed 2480 – Little Extras

This is the annual Christmas Competition Puzzle where solvers were given two weeks for submission, hence the delay in publishing the blog.       The preamble stated: Ten thematic clues are without … Read more >>

Enigmatic Variations No.1414 – Final Resting Place by Shark

“Several answers are shorter than the available grid length and therefore must be entered with blank cells. In 16 clues, the wordplay leads to the answer with one (and in one case, two) letters short. These suggest what must fill the unclued down entries, forming new words and signifying the FINAL RESTING PLACE. A symmetrical thematic string must be discovered (see 37, unclued) and naturally must move within the completed grid. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”

Read more >>

Independent 10,366 by Phi

When one has solved a Phi clue the answer is so obvious that one wonders where the difficulty lay. Yet there was difficulty, to be sure. Perhaps it’s because, as Carol Vorderman used … Read more >>

Guardian 28,010 / Maskarade

This was the bumper Guardian Christmas crossword by Maskarade, with a theme of place names around Great Britain. We thought this was a good theme, and an impressive grid fill – it was … Read more >>