Ali

Was it just me being tired from having stayed up late watching The Wire last night, or was some of this quite hard for a Dac puzzle? The middle of the grid didn’t … Read more >>

I found this pretty tough going, though Thursdays are generally the hardest weekday. I made a flying start with some of the across clues, but then slowed up, mainly because I thought that … Read more >>

Tougher than usual for Dac I thought, but the fact that I had to solve this whilst standing up on a bus and trying not to fall into people probably didn’t help my … Read more >>

A typically nice themed puzzle from Virgilius, with the 6 outermost across and down answers linking to the 2 centre answers WATER and WATCH. I found most of this quite easy, but there … Read more >>

Busy half-day for me today, so I’ll need to be brief. A tougher-than-usual Phi I thought, with impressive use of multiple grid entries for double-word clues intersecting in the grid. I fell down … Read more >>

More enviably entertaining, inventive stuff from Mr Cryptica. There’s plenty to admire here as always, with 21A and 20D being the standouts for me. Across 1 FLIP-FLOP – A pair of double defs … Read more >>

A tougher Phi than usual, I thought. A nice easy hidden reversal to start, but I struggled with the rest of the across clues on my first run through. The down clues were … Read more >>

It’s been fairly hard to avoid the fact that 2009 is the bicentenary of Charles Darwin’s birth, but the fact that the actual day is Feb 12th must have passed me by as … Read more >>

Always good to get the chance to blog a Morph puzzle. You can be fairly sure there’ll be a good selection of cheeky, inventive clues and a decent challenge along the way. And … Read more >>

A very quick solve for me on this one, but equally a very enjoyable one. I’ve been trying my hand at writing a few puzzles of my own of late and there’s so … Read more >>

This seemed to be one of those days where I filled in a lot of answers without fully understanding them. Some will hopefully become clear as I blog, but there’ll no doubt be … Read more >>

The first puzzle I’ve had chance to look at in what appears to have been a tricky batch so far this week, and this one certainly adds to that pile. I managed only … Read more >>

Quick one from me today as I’m hella busy. Enjoyed this, though one or two may need explaining. Across 1 HAMLET – HAM,LET 4 HISPANIC – (CHAP IS IN)* 8 AMULET – A,MULE,T[-ethered] … Read more >>

Good stuff from Glow-Worm, whose recent Listener puzzle is still on my to-do pile. There’s a mini theme here, with 4 answers contaning the word PLUS and a further reference at 1A. I … Read more >>

Happy Boxing Day y’all. I found some of this quite tough, possibly because I initially got 5D wrong and am unsure on a few others. Some nice clues though from a new-ish setter … Read more >>