Guardian

An averagely-hard  Friday puzzle, I’d say – took 25 minutes or so of a somewhat stop-start tube journey. A couple I had to guess in the absence of reference works, including 8 Across, which … Read more >>

Solving time: approx. 25 mins Araucaria’s outdone himself with this one – bit of a nightmare to solve with the number of clues referring to others, obscure wordplay, plain cheating and general skulduggery. … Read more >>

Apologies for the tardiness and brevity of this post, but I have been at a full-day seminar in sunny Perth all day, so have not been able to get online until now. When … Read more >>

Solving time: 35’ I stared at this for a long time post-solving convinced there was a theme (after all, the competition in The Independent is Virgilius) but I can’t tease anything to the … Read more >>

When you see that the compiler is Rufus, you know you are in for a glut of cryptic defintions, some more cryptic than others, and today’s puzzle had seven or eight of them, … Read more >>

Solving time: Resorted to references after 30 mins with five clues left (starred below), and a mistake. Following hot on the heels of Paul’s Beethoven-themed crossword last week comes a homage to Mozart … Read more >>

Not a great puzzle for me. A few good clues, a few obscure words and a few cryptic definitions—one’s my limit. Mind you I did this at the end of a long day … Read more >>

After Brendan and Virgilius a couple of weeks ago, is this another occasion of the Guardian and Indy setter coinciding? I’m probably wrong as usual, but I believe Paul and Punk are one and … Read more >>

Solving time 15:01 – should’ve been much quicker but for a wrong answer and stupidity at 12ac. Sorry for the delay, couldn’t take my eyes off the cricket. No way we should have … Read more >>

An enjoyable and challenging Tuesday puzzle from Shed. Once you get the two longer answers, the rest is just clever enough to keep you interested, which is a good trick to carry off. … Read more >>

Audreus has picked up Rufus’s Monday gauntlet with panache: a straightforward puzzle as befits Monday but nothing cliched nor run-of-the-mill. In particular, I like her charades (e.g. 8D, 16A) and a couple of … Read more >>

Solving time: 10:36 The ‘same person’ referred to in the preamble is Ludwig van Beethoven: “E 1”, “O 1” and “N 1” refer cryptically to “Beethoven’s 3rd“, “6th” and “9th” symphonies (see 1dn), … Read more >>

Solving time: 45′ Nice (comic?) relief from yesterday’s Independent for which I’ve exonerated myself for not knowing Nigella Lawson (she’s probably never heard of me after all). Some clever &lits and overall a … Read more >>

Can’t really give a time for this – I breezed through the top half in my head between two tube stops, and thought it’d be a breeze, but got bogged down at the … Read more >>