Guardian

A typical Paul effort with clues ranging from easy to difficult, and a collection of words some will know, and others won’t. I quite enjoy the mental challenge of a Paul puzzle, but … Read more >>

Solving time: 19:10 This should have been a fast time, as I spotted half the theme straight away from 17ac (TIGON). Unfortunately I then displayed immense slowness in various places, especially 2dn and … Read more >>

A slightly harder than usual Rufus puzzle. I’m mystified by a couple of wordplays (8A and 12A) still. One weakfish cryptic def (1D) but a couple of hard clever clues as well. Across … Read more >>

The blog for this puzzle will be appearing soon…

Maybe it’s jet-lag but I found it pretty hard to get into this puzzle. I wonder whether the NINA in the first column of unches is intentional or just my feverish jet-lagged brain. … Read more >>

A good, not too difficult puzzle from Pasquale, with two long double-entry clues of 24 letters each making up the perimeter. Both were very clever anag + lits, but such clues present an … Read more >>

France United States United Kingdom Norway Solving time approx. 10 minutes Brendan is also Virgilius in the Indy, so I was expecting some thematic content in a reasonably straightforward puzzle – and I … Read more >>

Very enjoyable puzzle from Shed. As you’ll see, there were a few bits and pieces I wasn’t sure about but was still able to make educated guesses thanks to some excellent clueing. Across … Read more >>

This was quite tough for a Monday, with some obscure words mixed in with references to Shakespeare, mythology, ancient alphabets and poetry.  All in all, it was enjoyable to solve, and took me … Read more >>

Solving time: 28 minutes for all but 22ac; one other mistake (9ac). I still can’t work out 9ac, for which I entered ‘anivorous’, but I should really have got 22ac, even though I … Read more >>

Chifonie’s puzzles tend to be fair and on the easier side. This one was no exception (solved in about 7 minutes), although I can’t work out the wordplay for 8dn, so if anyone … Read more >>

A typical Araucaria puzzle — a mini-theme, classical references, multi-word answers and clues referring to other clues. Quite entertaining, provided you’re not too much of a purist. Across 1 BIGOTRIES — Omega = … Read more >>

This wasn’t too tricky but there were a few answers that I don’t fully understand – explanations/corrections welcome. Across 1 RAIN in B(offin)S 4 (SOME BEDS)* – deceptive surface reading. 9 OPT in … Read more >>

I was too busy at work yesterday to finish the puzzle, so I completed it when I got home, only to find that my ADSL connection was down. It didn’t come back up … Read more >>

Solving time: 10’ Heartening start to the week after the weekend puzzles: I do know how to parse a cryptic clue after all. Not too many cryptic defs either – but a couple … Read more >>