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 26,956 / Paul

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It’s incredible to me how Paul keeps up such an endless stream of excellent, witty crosswords; here’s another one… Across 1. Idiot not entirely without feeling, shame one has quit (6) NUMPTY NUM[b] … Read more >>

Guardian 26,932 / Paul

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I’m afraid I’ve had a really exhausting week, so this blog post doesn’t have as much commmentary or hyperlinks as usual – hopefully normal service will return for the next one in four … Read more >>

Guardian 26,908 / Paul

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An excellent puzzle from Paul – thanks perhaps to getting the theme pretty early, I didn’t find this too hard, but it still look a few tries over the week to complete it … Read more >>

Guardian 26,884 / Paul

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We normally find Paul’s crosswords a breeze, but got very stuck on this one… I think there was a combination of things that made this tough for us – a few words that … Read more >>

Guardian 26,860 / Shed

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I haven’t done one of Shed’s puzzles in a while, and it’s very welcome to do so again – excellent clues throughout, I thought. (I have a couple of queries below, which I’m … Read more >>

Guardian 26,836 / Picaroon

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A fun puzzle from Picaroon, and not very taxing My favourite clue was 11a AN IDEAL HUSBAND, I think. Across 1. How poet’s day starts, absorbing French from novel (6) MODERN MORN = … Read more >>

Guardian 26,812 / Brummie

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I really enjoy Brummie’s crosswords – always entertaining and often with interesting vocabulary and wordplay. I didn’t spot any particular theme here; the notable thing that jumped out at us were a couple … Read more >>

Guardian 26,788 / Paul

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Maybe our crossword ability is atrophying due to lack of practice, but we found this one really tough! (Normally we romp through Paul’s puzzles.) Anyway, this was a puzzle of the usual very … Read more >>

Guardian 26,764 / Imogen

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Some lovely clues here, but we found this puzzle very tough, which I imagine will be the case for many solvers. The special instructions were: Definitions in nine clues lead to solutions (one … Read more >>

Guardian 26,741 / Crucible

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A tough but fair prize puzzle from Crucible. The there were some special instructions for this puzzle that read: Five across and eight down solutions involve, wholly or in part, some of 5 … Read more >>

Guardian 26,717 / Paul

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This was the usual very high standard of puzzle from Paul; we didn’t find it too difficult and there were plenty of clues to make us smile 🙂 Across 9. Spooner’s rejection of … Read more >>

Guardian 26,693 / Picaroon

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A good test from Picaroon, we thought – probably a bit above average in difficulty, particularly for a few obscurities. The three that were new to us were LEMAN, OERSTED and AVESTAN, but … Read more >>

Guardian 26,669 / Paul

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We certainly found this tough going – lots of lovely clues to enjoy along the way, though. Thanks to Paul for a difficult but fun challenge. Across 1. Lean to one side, then … Read more >>

Guardian 26,645 / Imogen

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An entertaining puzzle with an excellent theme from Imogen; this didn’t cause us too many problems… The rubric for this crossword read: Fifteen solutions are of a kind, not further defined. These turned … Read more >>

Guardian 26,621 / Paul

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A very enjoyable prize puzzle from Paul … … with a theme of Presidents of the USA. Here are the references I spotted: Obama in 9 across Carter in 10 across Eisenhower in … Read more >>