Guardian 25,527 – Brendan
Brendan is becoming quite a regular as stand-in for Rufus on his occasional Mondays off, and this was a typically enjoyable puzzle, and mostly not too hard, though with a theme that might … Read more >>
Never knowingly undersolved
Brendan is becoming quite a regular as stand-in for Rufus on his occasional Mondays off, and this was a typically enjoyable puzzle, and mostly not too hard, though with a theme that might … Read more >>
A nice mixture of clueing devices in Arachne’s web today. Mostly not too difficult, but I was fooled by a hidden answer till right at the end, and there are a couple of … Read more >>
Logodaedalus makes only rare appearances in the Guardian – his last puzzle was in July (he also appears as a setter of the Quiptic under his real name of Don Putnam). This one … Read more >>
A reasonably straightforward puzzle from Orlando (perhaps to soften us up for Araucaria’s Christmas special tomorrow), but with all his usual sound elegance and understated wit. Thanks, Orlando, and Merry Christmas to all … Read more >>
Another straightforward but nicely-constructed puzzle from Rufus, with the usual smooth surfaces. Across 1. PORTRAYAL (PLAY OR ART)* 6. YVES Hidden in grubbY VESt 8. PUBLICAN PUBLIC … Read more >>
In contrast to yesterday’s fairly tricky puzzle from Bonxie, this is a typical Chifonie, with entirely straightforward constructions, so one that would be suitable for beginners. I have a familiar quibble about 2dn, … Read more >>
Regular readers may have noticed that Gordius is not one of my favourite setters, but I found this one quite enjoyable, though perhaps rather easy for a Friday. It also suffers from coming … Read more >>
I’ve sometimes found Bonxie’s puzzles quite hard, but this one wasn’t too bad, despite a few rather obscure words. A nice theme involving the two “parts” of ROCK and ROLL, using at least … Read more >>
This was a fairly typical Azed for me, in that I solved about three-quarters of it fairly quickly and without aids (though with plenty of educated guesswork) but took a bit longer on … Read more >>
In contrast to the tricky Enigmatist puzzle I blogged last week, this was all plain sailing. The usual straightforward clueing (with 22ac being perhaps a slightly more involved construction than usual) and smooth … Read more >>
There’s a nice interview with Roger Squires, aka Rufus and Dante, on Shuchi’s Crossword Unclued blog.
Some typically tricky stuff here from Enigmatist, who we haven’t seen for a while, but as always very clever, and satisfying to solve. There were quite a few clues where I guessed the … Read more >>
A very enjoyable puzzle from Crucible with a number of answers (asterisked below – let me know if I’ve missed any) related to the phrase at 4,6. Not too difficult, but there are … Read more >>
Who better than Orlando to step in on one of the occasional non-Rufus Mondays? I found this a bit tricky in places, but it all came out nicely in the end thanks to … Read more >>
I’m always pleased to see Brendan’s name on a puzzle, but somehow I found this one both harder and (perhaps as a result) a bit more of a slog than usual, though there … Read more >>