Grant Baynham

A treat for my last blog of this always interesting year. The sneaky snake strikes again. Tough stuff – you'd expect no less from this setter – but great fun, with interlocking literary … Read more >>

A fun Tuesday solve. Apologies for desperately late blog. Huge tech rubbish, had to dash off everything again in the end. Thanks MOO & Merry Thing to all. ACROSS 1 MACRON President’s romance … Read more >>

Hamilton at his most generous. Straightforward and entertaining stuff from my sometime Nemesis. Quirky as ever, but no complaints this morning and some moments of real pleasure. Thanks, Hamilton. ACROSS 1, 8 HELL … Read more >>

A very satisfying Tuesday puzzle. Mostly straightforward, but with several head-scratching definitions. I had second thoughts about e.g. 25a and 7d, two which I would probably have mis-solved if I hadn't been blogging. … Read more >>

Decent Tuesday fare with some pleasing surfaces. A speed-solve this morning. All above board and accurately clued and with some very 'readable' clues. Thanks to Gurney. ACROSS 1 GULF STATES Significant difference, says … Read more >>

Not-entirely-straightforward Tuesday offering from this morning's setter. The majority went in smoothly enough, but the endgame involved mopping up a number of tricksy 4-letter words which I have to admit provoked a few … Read more >>

My first tussle with this setter, and a quite a tussle it was. I was shamefully slow out of the traps this morning, eventually completing the SE corner with hardly anything else showing. … Read more >>

Solid Tuesday breakfast fare. Tasty and not too meaty. Thanks, Falcon. ACROSS 9 END Close finish (3)   Double def. Feels a bit, er, close. 10 CONSOLIDATE Strengthen vulnerable citadel soon (11)   … Read more >>

A satisfying Tuesday puzzle. Solid & straightforward stuff – though certainly not a write-in – from this morning's setter, including one – to me – useful novelty. Thanks, Flimsy. ACROSS 1 INDICATE I … Read more >>

Simple elegance from this mornings setter. Strain-free surfaces & deadly accurate wordplay. A smooth, swift and satisfying solve. Thanks to Gurney. ACROSS 1 STATISTICIAN Rewritten, after resistance suppressed, it’s antiracist, this guy figures? … Read more >>

Tricksy and enjoybale stuff from Peto today A slow start this morning. Some very cute definitions ('bank' at 1A a favourite) and not much was being given away in the parsing, either. But … Read more >>

Hamilton at his most cheerfully infuriating. Always a challenge, often for the wrong reasons, and always fun of a kind, I s'pose, though if you came here looking for elucidation of the first … Read more >>

A solid effort from Falcon this morning and one which took me longer than necessary. Mostly because I'd convinced myself of PAWN SHOP for 4, which dropped anchor in the top right until … Read more >>

A fun Tuesday solve with some ingenious clueing for which thanks to Dogberry. For some reason, my software won't let me enter 10 Down, so SPOILER ALERT, I'll parse it here… 10 Endlessly … Read more >>

Solid Tuesday fun from the Falcon. All pretty straightforward, although I did get held up for a couple of minutes trying to think of a novelist in the top right before sanity prevailed. … Read more >>