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Solving time: 11:50 A fairly gentle offering from Paul, I thought – only 2dn (FUTILITY) and 9ac (BORING) really held me up in this. My favourite clues were probably 2dn (OMIGOD) and 7/20dn … Read more >>

Solving time: 33:34 Probably two-thirds of that time was spent trying to untangle the long phrase starting at 1dn, together with a few other crossing answers (especially 22ac and 23dn). If you knew … Read more >>

Solving time: 32:35 Wow, that was difficult – and that despite me knowing (for once) a few of the many literary references. I nearly reached for the dictionary / Google on a few … Read more >>

Solving time: 6 minutes for most of the puzzle and the same again on 19dn. Paul is running the London Marathon tomorrow in support of the deafblind charity Sense. There’s more information at … Read more >>

Solving time: 32:30 (1dn and 9dn wrong) This Bank Holiday special from Araucaria had a special feature in the across clues: the wordplay indicated the answer using a subsidiary word which ended in … Read more >>

Solving time: 13:50 This week a mini-theme of prices, of admiralty, liberty and blood, as quoted by various literary sources, as well as several biblical references (e.g. 8/7dn, 18dn, 19dn) possibly giving a … Read more >>

Solving time: 7:55 The 9 thematic answers (starred below) were all historical figures with whom the epithet ‘Great’ is associated. No Alexander, but there are some famous examples such as Alfred, Catherine and … Read more >>

Solving time: 11:08 A rare Saturday outing for Gordius, which I think was of about the same level of difficulty as his occasional weekday puzzles. Some clever stuff here with a good sprinkling … Read more >>

Solving time: A couple of days (10dn and 14dn wrong). Not in one sitting, I ought to add. In fact two thirds of this came out pretty quickly, but I then hit a … Read more >>

Solving time: 7:17 When I first printed this off I thought I must be missing a preamble, but in fact the asterisks in some clues (those starred below) acted as definitions of ‘stars’ … Read more >>

Solving time: 16:38 An enjoyable puzzle for Enigmatist’s first prize crossword of 2009. I had a good start but found it difficult to finish off. After solving I noticed the perimeter message (‘not … Read more >>

Solving time: About 15 mins, with 12ac missing and 5dn wrong. About medium difficulty this week; I fell down on the artist at 13ac, in part thanks to an error at 5dn. There’s … Read more >>

Solving time: 11:45 A sports mini-theme this week, with QUESTION[s] OF SPORT including ANYONE FOR TENNIS, APPEAL and HOW’S THAT. I found this about medium difficulty with some nice clues but one or … Read more >>

Solving time: 15:26, the last 4 mins of which on 18dn. I found this a little harder than other recent Paul puzzles, but this may have been through unfamiliarity with the theme author, … Read more >>

Solving time: 20:32 (two mistakes: 13ac and 7dn) There’s a palindromic theme to this puzzle, built around the very long one referred to at 21ac. I found it hard to get going until … Read more >>