Guardian

What makes a good anagram indicator? This puzzle combines what, to me, are some excellent anagrinds and some weaker ones, so I thought I’d set out my own personal likes and dislikes.  “At … Read more >>

Solving time 14:42 Not much to do here, so let’s have a go. This was pretty tough, and there are three clues I don’t understand or can’t quite swallow. For me, these slightly … Read more >>

An enjoyable puzzle today from Araucaria, which either means that there wasn’t too much non-Ximenean shenanigans going on, or that I’m actually getting used to his style (however, the wordplay escaped me on … Read more >>

It’s Monday, so it must be Rufus. His puzzles are generally very easy (8 minutes to solve today’s), and this is mainly because his clues are not always terribly cryptic, and his definitions … Read more >>

Solving time: 20:01. One mistake (2dn) so the last 3 of those minutes were wasted! I know the Guardian allows its setters much more licence than most publications (and that some setters are … Read more >>

My first entry to this blog related to a Chifonie puzzle, so my heart sank at first when I saw that I would be solving another one today. However, this one is a … Read more >>

A puzzle about the tube from Araucaria that probably could be done on the tube. Not all the lines showed up but at least my favorite did (the District, which is what I … Read more >>

A puzzle with an overt theme, rather than one to be deduced, which gives a good illustration of the many different uses of ‘doctor’ in a puzzle. All the across clues and a … Read more >>

After two weeks away from the UK with no daily crosswords I found this one a real struggle after the halfway mark. A few obscure words and some weak devices left me having … Read more >>

Solving time – about 7 mins I counted 11 cryptic definitions and 5 double definitions in this puzzle, which seems a bit excessive – and makes it very easy if your brain’s working … Read more >>

A top-notch puzzle from a setter that, in my opinion, does not appear often enough in the Guardian. Across 1 CREW,TUC(k)< – nicely misleading clue to start things off. 5 BUCOLIC – “bee … Read more >>

A couple of tougher clues, but a pretty standard puzzle really. The bottom right corner held out longest, helped by a typo in 18 down – ell for eel (see below). Across: 1. … Read more >>

We had an excellent night out in London last night with bloggers from here and Pete Biddlecombe’s Times for the Times blog, Tony Sever (RTC2) and a few setters too. A possible side-effect … Read more >>

For early birds, the online version of today’s puzzle provided the solver with a challenge – “Guess the Setter”. The setter’s name didn’t appear in the crossword heading, however it did appear in … Read more >>

A literary feast with clever use of grid geometry. I was helped by incidentally having a copy of “The New Yorker” next to me with the name JULIAN BARNES (1A, 4A) on the … Read more >>