Arthur

Plenty of anagrams this week particularly in the down clues (I count 10 clues containing at least a part anagram). Since these are often the easiest to spot, it should have been quite … Read more >>

Well I think the obvious feature of this one is all the compound solutions. Personally I think these are fun, but that they make the whole thing much easier (the more words they … Read more >>

Not my favourite ever – 11ac is a recent, but not very popular television show which I think is perhaps a little unfair. Also, the way that I parse is, 13dn requires BRAIN … Read more >>

I rather enjoyed this one. No particularly obscure words and a couple of nice cryptic definitions as part of more precise clues which raised smiles. Also generally the surfaces seemed to read better … Read more >>

A rather nice and gentle end to the year – a couple of seasonal clues/answers and what with the slightly more obscure words being anagramatically clued, this was all pretty straightforward. Across 1 … Read more >>

It seems that the ‘theme’ this week was multiple word phrases with six throughout the crossword including one 6 word composite and another 5 worder. Otherwise little of note and nothing that should … Read more >>

Hopefully nothing too hard here. For some reason I wanted 15ac to be ALTAR for a while (A large being AL and in front of church being the definition) but after drawing various … Read more >>

Sorry for the brevity of this post – I was busy all last weekend so it’s all been slightly last minute… Fortunately not too difficult – if it had been I probably wouldn’t … Read more >>

Another one that took a little while to get going but then got much easier. Not my favourite ever, but probably pretty fair throughout. Across 1 MODICUM – ODIC in MUM. An odic … Read more >>

Not all that easy this week with quite a few less well known names, titles and phrases (for me at least!) Anyway, once it got going it was actually pretty plain sailing, but … Read more >>

I didn’t really like this one. It’s unfortunate that IOUs was used in a clue to 14 ac and a solution to 2dn. I can’t properly parse 1dn, 16dn is a dreadful clue … Read more >>

No big surprises here and nothing very difficult. There do seem to be a lot of word or part word reversals in this one. The main point of note is a rare but … Read more >>

It felt like a lot of anagrams and first or last letters this week, but maybe that was just the order in which I approached the clues. The few place name answers were … Read more >>

Nice and easy this week. There’s a couple of odd words, but usually with such clear signposts and complete definitions, it’s not very hard to check you’ve got the right thing. Overall, a … Read more >>

Pretty standard with a couple of neat tricks here and there, but nothing to tax Everyman regulars. Across 1 CICELY – (ICYCLE)* 4 SPROUTED – R in SPOUTED = sounded off 9 MUSCLE … Read more >>