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 24544 / Auster

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A fun puzzle, which wasn’t too difficult because of all but three of the across clues having anagrams. 10 down was much the hardest, I thought, since there was weak checking in the … Read more >>

Guardian 24536 / Rufus

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A very good start to the week, with lots of clues that made me smile. I think my particular favourites here were two of the three musical ones: 16 across and 25 down. … Read more >>

Guardian 24534 / Enigmatist

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A remarkable grid with four 15 letter clues going down and lots of inventive and entertaining cluing… Across 8. RIBOSOME RIE (essentially bRIEf) covering BOSOM (“doing what bra does”). Ribosomes are organelles found … Read more >>

Guardian 24527 / Gordius

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As usual with Gordius’s puzzles, I found this one rather difficult, so there are quite a few questions below. It was very enjoyable, but something of a guilty pleasure considering the amount of … Read more >>

Guardian 24520 / Paul

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Apologies for the late posting today – I’m stuck on a train, so internet access is a bit frustrating, and I’m afraid that as a result some of these explanations aren’t as well … Read more >>

Guardian 24512/Rufus

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As ever, a great fun puzzle for the start of the week from Rufus, with lots of “A-ha!” moments with the cryptic definitions. I found the top left corner was much harder than … Read more >>

Guardian 24510/Arachne

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Is is just me being dense, or was this rather difficult today? I could do with some help with explaining 18d (HACKSAW). That said, there are lots of marvellous surface readings here (too … Read more >>

Guardian, 24503/Rover

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This was quite a fast puzzle to do, despite some of the vocabulary or meanings being unfamiliar to me, particularly in the north-east corner. There are couple of clues I wasn’t wild about, … Read more >>

Guardian, 24496/Araucaria

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An excellent crossword today with a Wagner theme and some great wordplay. (Apologies that this is later than usual; it was slightly more complicated than most to ‘blog about and I got up … Read more >>

Guardian, 24488/Rufus

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A fun puzzle from Rufus to start the week; there were lots of good “a-ha!” moments for me in this one and excellent surface readings throughout, my favourites being 8d and 28a, I … Read more >>

Guardian, 24486/Paul

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As ever, a very enjoyable crossword from Paul, with lots of animals (mostly pigs and cows), a few communists and a couple of computer references. Across 8 LANDRACE: LAND (as in fishing) + … Read more >>

Guardian, 24471/Araucaria

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This was a difficult puzzle today, I thought, although I tend to find Araucaria’s crosswords harder than the other Guardian setters. As usual, there are some really satisfying clues here and great surface … Read more >>

Guardian, 24462/Paul

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A fun golf-themed crossword from Paul (one of my favourite Guardian setters) with a few of his rather suggestive clues as usual. 🙂 There’s lots to enjoy in this puzzle, but I particularly … Read more >>

Guardian, 24450/Gordius

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I found this a pretty tough puzzle for my first posting here. There were lots of interesting and satisfying clues, though, and several words that were new to me. Across 8 CO-INHERE: or … Read more >>