Guardian

A literary romp from Araucaria – five of the down answers are the names of books and there’s at least two more literary reference among the clues.  Great fun, just a shame that … Read more >>

Solving time – approx. 20 minutes Another witty and scurrilous (I mean that as a compliment) offering from Gordius today! Really enjoyable to solve, although it required a lot of general knowledge (some … Read more >>

Imagine my confusion when I saw a puzzle by Rufus (almost) without a cryptic definition. Mirroring Araucaria’s recent non-cross-referenced puzzle. Across 1 RE,TORT 5 RE,STRICT – the other meaning of RE this time. … Read more >>

Three alphabets used here: English, Greek and Hebrew though I have a quibble about use of the latter. The preamble made this puzzle quite easy I thought – I suspect it would have … Read more >>

I’m struggling with computer problems (a dead monitor), so was relieved that this one was pretty straightforward. Across 1 RUGBY FOOTBALL — *(golf brutal boy) 10 TOP BANANA — The star entertainer (see … Read more >>

Despite some complex wordplay, I found this less difficult than the average Araucaria (a relief after yesterday’s Pasquale, where I failed on four clues). The theme is the 19th century Tory PM Disraeli, so … Read more >>

(Apologies for the late post – solved the puzzle earlier today, and forgot to write the blog!!) This was a toughie, especially after the usual Rufus romp yesterday.  Some very unusual words and … Read more >>

Solving time 4:32 I suppose I should thank Rufus after last Friday’s battle with a really tough Araucaria, but this was just too easy! I’m no speed demon, but I got nearly every … Read more >>

Solving time: 55 mins, references for 11 and 25 in grid A. Araucaria’s special Bank Holiday double puzzle was themed around the poet W H Auden, who would have celebrated his hundredth birthday … Read more >>

Well, my Internet connection seems fine this morning, so hopefully that means they’ve fixed it properly this time! Anyway, as a few people have already commented, this was an absolute beast of a … Read more >>

Found this hard for Audreus – who I’ve blogged a couple of times in the past. Had to resort to the dictionary to solve the anagram at 7D which looked awfully unlikely in … Read more >>

A change of pace after yesterday’s Paul brainbuster. It still required two coffees, Mrs Stan and Crossword Buddy (http://www.loquax.co.uk/puzzles/) to complete however, which probably says more about the state of my mind than the … Read more >>

I started slowly, and didn’t feel in tune with the puzzle at all, maybe it was the bruising effect of trying to solve Saturday’s twin puzzles……. Across 9 URTICARIA Often references to rash … Read more >>

Sorry for the late post.  Don’t have a lot to say about this puzzle.  Mostly fair, some good surfaces, the usual smattering of cryptic definitions that Rufus likes to use. I’m not convinced … Read more >>