michod

‘The dog for me’ (6dn)… well, I don’t think Chifonie’s an Afghan, so it probably had to be setter, didn’t it!  That one was a bit obvious to seasoned hands, but there are some nice clues … Read more >>

Took me about 20 minutes, except for the last two clues, which I feel could take another week. Offers welcomed for 13 across and 22 down. What with these, and several dictionary words … Read more >>

Reasonably easy Monday morning fare. At a rough count, one third cryptic definitions, generally pretty straightforward but several pithy and apposite enough to be quite satisfying even if they don’t take a lot … Read more >>

An averagely-hard  Friday puzzle, I’d say – took 25 minutes or so of a somewhat stop-start tube journey. A couple I had to guess in the absence of reference works, including 8 Across, which … Read more >>

After Brendan and Virgilius a couple of weeks ago, is this another occasion of the Guardian and Indy setter coinciding? I’m probably wrong as usual, but I believe Paul and Punk are one and … Read more >>

Can’t really give a time for this – I breezed through the top half in my head between two tube stops, and thought it’d be a breeze, but got bogged down at the … Read more >>

Quite a hard one to get going with, though fell into place reasonably once I had the theme (with one exception, see below). But there are several whose wordplay I’m unable to explain. ACROSS: … Read more >>

Doing better than last week – I’ve managed to post in the morning even though the paperboy delivered the Telegraph with ‘Sorry, no Gaurdian’ written on it (no irony intended, I assume). Sorry if … Read more >>

Oh dear, it had to happen. Did the crossword, pottered around the house all morning while someone fixed the broken drain that’s been causing a stink in my house, checked the site a … Read more >>

A pretty straightforward puzzle, with no obscure German towns or archaic words and only one two fairly minor quibbles for me. A couple of the anagrams give themselves away rather too cheaply, but Chifonie makes … Read more >>

There’s usually (always?)  a theme from Breandan, and a rather clever one in this case. The six-letter downs in top left and bottom right are all three letter words doubled, and the eight-letter pairs … Read more >>

Apologies for late posting – I’ve been for lunch with the ‘gruntlings’, a group of contestants in the Azed monthly clue-writing comp who meet the week after to compare notes, or just eat, … Read more >>

It’s more the Indy’s kind of thing, but I’ve started looking for a themed message, especially in these puzzles with unchecked squares around the perimeter. From the top left  I came up with BASES … Read more >>

What makes a good anagram indicator? This puzzle combines what, to me, are some excellent anagrinds and some weaker ones, so I thought I’d set out my own personal likes and dislikes.  “At … Read more >>