Guardian

It’s 4am and yesterday’s Guardian hasn’t been blogged yet, so as I have ‘flu and can’t sleep I thought I’d fill the breach. Please excuse any mistakes. Easier than usual for Paul, I … Read more >>

Araucaria, love him or loathe him, rarely fails to produce an enjoyable puzzle to solve and you always learn something new to boot. This is typical fare – there aren’t many examples that … Read more >>

I did most of this puzzle within my 30 minute bus journey (the schools aren’t back yet!) However, I failed to get a couple of answers on the Eastern edge until a few … Read more >>

The things you learn: my basic knowledge of cricket and opera has increased significantly since I started doing cryptics regularly. A nice selection of Rufusian puns and cryptic definitions. You’d think there’d be … Read more >>

Solving time 33:50 It’s good to be writing our first posting about a kind of puzzle I’ve looked forward to ever since I started solving cryptic crosswords. Back in the late 1970s, when … Read more >>

Actually, fairly mild stuff from the octogenarian enfant terrible today – two of his trademark multi-word linked entries, and only a handful of  clues to wind up the purists. But I’m not sure I … Read more >>

Solving time – about 30 mins Very apposite theme with New Year’s Eve fast approaching…I was held up for a long time because I foolishly put in EPSILON for 4dn, without reading the … Read more >>

This crossword would have been a bit easier, had the web version not had a glitch (at least on my machine) which led to every letter I typed in being repeated in hte … Read more >>

Nelson (19D) was the admiral (22A) who led the Royal Navy in the Battle of Copenhagen (18A). Maybe I’ve teased out a theme here after all. Or is the theme golf (see 1A, … Read more >>

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 >>

Not as hard as some Friday puzzles, but containing one or two relatively obscure words and sub-words with a capacity to frustrate. Took me about 20 minutes over a leisurely breakfast. A lot of clues … Read more >>

Solving time approx 20 mins. I seem to remember the last Taupi was seriously tricky, but this one was OK. A lot of very clever and succinct clues that required a bit of … Read more >>

Solving time – 10 minutes – would have been under 5 if I’d realised what what was going on in the middle “column” of the grid. I started well with this one – … Read more >>

I thought that this puzzle was quite tough for a Tuesday morning, or maybe my brain is starting to wind down for the festive season.  As usual. Paul demonstrated some clever wordplay, but … Read more >>

Virtually every clue is holiday related (xmas, parties, trees, pantos, carols…). I probably missed an allusion or two being of the other faith. I think this is the first of the Xmas-related themes … Read more >>