NealH

I've been doing crosswords off and on since university back in the 1980s. I used to do the Guardian, but defected to the Independent a year ago. My solving standard is still not what I'd like. I'd love to be able to knock off a crossword in 10 minutes, but find I'm still getting stuck for long periods when the inspiration doesn't quite arrive. I once had a go at compiling crosswords but, after a very rude rejection for the editor of the Telegraph, I didn't bother any further.

Independent 11,188 by Italicus

Mon August 22, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

A nice entertaining puzzle with very good surface definitions.

Independent 11,170 by Filbert

Mon August 1, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

I found this a fairly challenging puzzle with a few clues that needed quite a lot of crossing letters before I could solve them.

Independent 11,152 by Knut

Mon July 11, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

This wasn't the most difficult Monday puzzle, but that wasn't really the point. The point was to poke a bit of fun at the now departing government of Boris Johnson.

Independent 11,134 by Filbert

Mon June 20, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

This was certainly the toughest Monday puzzle I've done in a long time. Had I not been blogging, I might well have given up half way through and in the end it took me three longish sessions to finish it.

Independent 11,116 by Angel

Mon May 30, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

This was mostly on the easy side, but a few required some thinking to work out the correct parsing.

Independent 11,098 by Alchemi

Mon May 9, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

An enjoyable puzzle where the bottom half seemed a little harder than the top.

Independent 11,080 by Tees

Mon April 18, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

An entertaining puzzle with a few that were tricky to parse.

Independent 11,062 by Italicus

Mon March 28, 2022 at 10:14 amMon March 28, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

The advance copy I received had a strange lack of spacing in some of the clues. I don't think that was deliberate, but one can never be sure with crossword setters.

Independent 11,044 by Skinny

Mon March 7, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

This was quite enjoyable and generally at the easier end of the spectrum.

Independent 11,026 by Filbert

Mon February 14, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

I found this quite tough in places and stalled for a while on the north east corner.

Independent 11,008 by Tees

Mon January 24, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

Crosswords are sometimes written a few weeks before they are published and the themes can seem a little out-of-date by the time they appear.

Independent 10,990 by Alchemi

Mon January 3, 2022 at 9:00 am by NealH

This was mostly fairly easy but with a couple of stinkers.

Independent 10,973 by Radian

Mon December 13, 2021 at 9:00 am by NealH

I found this quite tough and needed a couple of goes to finish.

Independent 10,955 by Angel

Mon November 22, 2021 at 9:00 am by NealH

One of those puzzles where it was mostly easy but I was left with 2 or 3 where I had all the crossing letters but was still struggling to think of the answers.

Independent 10,937 by Gila

Mon November 1, 2021 at 9:00 am by NealH

A cracking puzzle from Gila with lots of great clues. It was probably at the easier end of the spectrum, but did still need some thought in places.