mhl

Although I had some early attempts to solve cryptic crosswords as a teenager, it was only in my late 20s (and mostly thanks to fifteensquared!) that I became reasonably competent as a solver. However, despite being a slow solver I found that I had a knack for parsing clues, and volunteered to do a weekly blog post on the Guardian crossword. After a few years, I had to drop down to being on the Guardian Prize rota, but eventually found that with two young children to look after, I didn't have time even for that. I'm still hoping to resume blogging more regularly when they're a little older!

Guardian 24626 / Boatman

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A fun puzzle, which wasn’t too difficult – on the other hand, I have quite a few questions or quibbles below, which I’m sure people will be able to correct. 🙂 Across 1. … Read more >>

Guardian 24615 / Rover

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A mixture of very easy clues and some that are rather tricky to explain. I’m slightly doubtful about my explanations for 11a, 12a and could do with some suggestions for 28a and 20d. … Read more >>

Guardian Genius 67 / Shed

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The hidden theme of this excellent crossword is “Composers”: most uses of the letter C in the clues should be read as “composer” for the clue to make sense. This perhaps wasn’t as … Read more >>

Guardian 24600 / Rufus

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Apologies for this being a bit late today; I’d forgotten that I was supposed to be doing the post today. There are a couple of questions below that people can easily clear up, … Read more >>

Guardian 24598 / Paul

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I’ve very little time for this today, so apologies for any errors – I needed quite a bit of research to get or confirm the song titles, but I don’t mind that. As … Read more >>

Guardian 24591 / Logodaedalus

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A surprisingly easy puzzle for a Thursday, which I don’t think should have posed people any particular problems. (Although I created some for myself by writing TIGERCATS into the grid instead of STRATEGIC … Read more >>

Guardian 24584 / Enigmatist

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This was rather tough going until we got the Hogmanay message around the outside (FOR THE SAKE OF AULD LANG SYNE), but good fun nonetheless. There are a few bits of devious wordplay … Read more >>

Guardian 24579 / Pasquale

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This is the first Pasquale that I’ve done as a blogger, and sadly I have very little time to devote to it – so apologies for not including more commentary, links, etc. Anyway, … Read more >>

Guardian 24575 / Puck

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Apologies for any errors here – I’m rather beset by work and illness at the moment. My partner did about half of these, so thanks to her for the help… Across 9,19,7 and … Read more >>

Guardian 24568 / Arachne

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Good clues with some excellent surface readings; there are a couple I’m not quite convinced by, but maybe people can clarify them. Across 9. ABSORBENT ABS = “Sailors” + OR = “soldiers” + … Read more >>

Guardian 24558 / Chifonie

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I normally find Chifonie very difficult, so I was pleased to get through about half today’s puzzle very fast – the rest of the clues (mostly in the bottom half) took quite a … Read more >>

Guardian 24551 / Brendan

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I very much enjoyed this puzzle and personally didn’t find it nearly as difficult as the last couple of days. There are several references to the United States (7a, 26a, 1d, 3d, 18d) … Read more >>