Guardian

Firstly, thank you to PeeDee, Andrew and BertandJoyce for filling in for me while I was away.  Also, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all at Fifteensquared.  In … Read more >>

I found this a bit lacklustre.   There was nothing actually wrong with any of the clues but overall the puzzle seemed to lack a little sparkle.   Normally I find puzzles from … Read more >>

Some tricky stuff here from Puck – I took a while to get going on this, and even when a lucky guess gave me the crucial 26,16 there was still some work to … Read more >>

Very straightforward for a Thursday, without much misdirection in the definitions. Across 1 ON TIME =”punctual” ONE=”Somebody” around TIM=”boy” 4 PEA GREEN =”colour” PEN=”Writer” around AGREE=”match” 9 ON EDGE =”Nervous” ON=”working” + EDGE=”creep” … Read more >>

Thank you, Phil Ashling for filling in so admirably for me last Tuesday when I was among 1,500 having a celebration lunch in a remote village in Fujian, China. We, all surnamed Yap, … Read more >>

A fairly typical Rufus mix of anagrams and double and cryptic definitions, with the usual silky-smooth surfaces, mostly straightforward, which is no bad thing at this busy time, with a couple of [for … Read more >>

A quick skim through the clues made me think I might not enjoy this theme much, because I didn’t expect to know some of the answers.  ‘North American food’ didn’t sound like my … Read more >>

Apologies for the late posting, and the brevity – I am about to have minor surgery. Across 1. Very cold parrot starting a course of action (6) POLICY A charade of POL[ly] (‘parrot … Read more >>

Yes, it’s me for the second time this week, standing in for scchua, who is away. It was a bit of a surprise to get Paul today after Araucaria yesterday, but a pleasant … Read more >>

What looked for a while like a typically Araucarian mixture of obscurity and straightforwardness, with a few liberties thrown in, turned out to have more going on than I realised. Definitions are underlined. … Read more >>

Uncle Yap is away, so it’s my pleasure to do a Guardian blog of a Brendan crossword. Brendan has been reading his horoscope it appears, the signs of the Zodiac appear thoughout as … Read more >>

I’m not usually one of Rufus’s biggest fans, but I enjoyed this one, as I thought it had a nice variety of clue types, and as always some excellent surface readings. As usual, … Read more >>