Andrew

As I expected when I saw Vlad’s name, this was pretty tough going, with sudden bursts of progress interrupted by long periods of staring hopelessly at the clues. Of course everything looks reasonably … Read more >>

I found this mostly less tricky than usual for Boatman, but still had a bit of trouble finishing off the top half, not helped by the horrible grid, with four almost isolated corners, … Read more >>

Quite a tough one from Tramp today, but enjoyable as always… … the clues are bristling with references to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, initially a radio series, and later books and … Read more >>

Another well-judged puzzle from Nutmeg (who you can read about here), with elegant surfaces that reveal a perfectly sound and straightforward construction once you see through the misdirection. For those who care about … Read more >>

The usual quick solve for a Monday morning. There are fewer of Rufus’s trademark cryptic definitions than usual in this one, but I have quibbles about quite a few of the cues, not … Read more >>

Once again Tramp has produced a puzzle with lots of thematic references in the clues, but without the need for solvers to know anything about the theme. It’s not giving anything away to … Read more >>

A very satisfying puzzle from Picaroon today, where I initially made slow progress but gradually made my way through it thanks to sound and inventive clueing. Nice one.           … Read more >>

I found this much harder than usual for Tramp, and some of the parsing eluded me for some time even after I’d filled in the answers. There’s an error in 8d, but it … Read more >>

I started off rather slowly with this, but speeded up as things fell into place. There were a couple of rather obscure words, but all clearly clued. There’s a theme of cinema genres, … Read more >>

This was a puzzle of two halves for me today – the top half was pretty much a write-in, with the bottom taking a bit longer, probably because of the preponderance of cryptic … Read more >>

Good fun from Qaos (with reservations on a couple of clues). As almost always with this setter we have a “ghost theme” in the solutions… … in this case John le Carré’s novel … Read more >>

My third Paul in a row as he marches through the week, and after a couple of slightly sub-par efforts he is back on form here. I particularly liked the two silly homphones, … Read more >>