Andrew

Good fun as always from this setter, though I have a couple of niggles on definitions, especially on the rather obscure 25a. Thanks to Qaos. Following on from the militaristic theme in Qaos’s … Read more >>

I found this very hard to get started on, and not much easier after that, even after getting the crucial 15d, though as is often the case the explanations are mostly quite straightforward. … Read more >>

A typical Rufus, with plenty of cryptic and double definitions – 5 of each. For variety there are also 5 pure anagrams and 5 clues of the form “A in B”. Thanks to … Read more >>

It’s been a while since I blogged an Arachne puzzle, but this was worth the wait, with clever clueing and characteristic wit. Thanks to Arachne. Possible Nina alert: I notice that JENNER appears … Read more >>

I don’t I’m ever going to be a fan of Otterden’s puzzles, so I’ll be brief. A few very easy anagrams to get us started, a nice couple of the subtractive anagrams that … Read more >>

A very ingenious construction from Picaroon, where the word “play” (or a variant) occurs in every single clue, used in a variety of ways. I found this in the Goldilocks zone of difficulty … Read more >>

I’d been thinking that some of Chifonie’s recent puzzles had been getting slightly more difficult, but this one is back to his old style, with lots of easy charades and anagrams, so it … Read more >>

Only two “pure” cryptic definitions from Rufus today, but a couple of double defs that only just count as double. Quite a few anagrams too, which helped to make this a very quick … Read more >>

I had fewer niggles than in previous Otterden puzzles, but I still found this hard work. With exactly half the answers having “8” as their definition – some of those being rather obscure … Read more >>

Good fun from Qaos today (despite a couple of niggles). His puzzles usually have a hidden theme of some kind: I can’t see anything in this one, but I may well have missed … Read more >>

A very satisfying puzzle from Philistine today, with lots of clues that seemed impenetrable at first but gradually yielded, including a few where the letters of the answer literally appear in the clue, … Read more >>

Once again the crossword has not (yet) been published properly on the Guardian website, though fortunately for me the PDF version is available here. After that difficulty, I had to struggle with Vlad, … Read more >>