Sloggers and Betters
Tonight sees the first get-together of some of the contributors to Fifteensquared, Times for the Times and the new RTC Times2 blog, with a few setters thrown in for good measure. It’s the … Read more >>
neildubya
Independent 6310/Monk – In addition
Even before you’d filled in a single answer, you knew that there was something else going on in this puzzle: the plus signs in 2 across and 2 down clues, 8 more in … Read more >>
Independent 6313/Dac – Mr Wednesday
Across 1 C,ROT,ON – I’d not heard of this before and “heralds” had me puzzled for a while but once I’d got C?O?O? the wordplay became more obvious. 9 (LIVE)*,ED – cleverly worded. … Read more >>
Azed 1805
A relatively easy Azed to finish the year. Quite a few tough words, and many that were new to me, but I was able to fill them in without checking the dictionary as … Read more >>
Guardian 23961/Enigmatist – quite h-h-hard.
I managed to finish this but there are a number of answers that I still don’t fully understand. We usually only see this type of grid/theme combo from Brendan so it’s good to … Read more >>
Independent 6306/Virgilius – New Year, New Theme…
…at least I think it’s new. I certainly don’t recall ever seeing it before. It’s a nice idea although it does make things very easy for you, once you’ve got the first one … Read more >>
Independent 6299/Phi
Slightly trickier than usual offering from Phi, with an appropriate mini-theme. Across 1 S,WIPED 5/10 THE FIRST NO,EL 9 N in DISCO,TENT 12 B,I,RE,ME – new to me but I’d come across TRIREME … Read more >>
Independent 6300/Virgilius
Do my eyes deceive me or is this a theme-less puzzle from Virgilius? There’s the reference to the flags of the US and ex-Soviet Union at 1A and 26A but that’s all I … Read more >>
The Christmas break
We will hopefully be posting to the blog every day throughout the Christmas break except for the 25th – hangovers and other forms of over-indulgence permitting. In the meantime, I’d like to thank … Read more >>
Guardian 23951/Shed
Is it my imagination or do we not see Shed as often as we used to? He’s usually ranked at the harder end of the Guardian scale of difficulty but I never seem … Read more >>
Independent 6298/Nimrod
Another one of “those” grids from Nimrod, with only 9 (count ’em) across clues and 5 of those have 15 letters. It’s been said before, here and elsewhere, that the problem with this … Read more >>
Independent 6296/Dac
More quality cluemanship from Dac. Across 6 hidden in “riCE REAlly”. 10 O,I,GIRL< 11 YO,SEMITE – I guess this is a reference to George Bush’s infamous “Yo Blair!” comment. 12 (EACH HIPS)* 13 … Read more >>
Coming Soon in 2007 – Independent Weekend Magazine Puzzle
From the New Year we will start to cover the advanced cryptic puzzles that appear on a Saturday in the Independent Weekend Magazine. These puzzles are edited by Mike Laws and are generally … Read more >>
Independent 6294/Tees
I really enjoyed this. Quite tricky in parts, with some subtle and genuinely inventive wordplay. I got one wrong (18D), confirmed one on the Interweb and filled in a couple without fully understanding … Read more >>
Independent 6287/Scorpion – Elusively hard
Like the last Scorpion puzzle a few weeks ago I found this very challenging but very enjoyable. I wish I could put my finger on exactly what made it difficult for me as … Read more >>