Guardian

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 >>

One of these days I’m going to miss a theme in an Everyman. I’ve stared at this one but no joy. Though I always enjoy solving Everyman – which typically takes about 1/2h … Read more >>

Solving time 21:35 when last answer (K) was looked up. I think this is the first “alphajig” since we started the blog. They’re an old favourite of mine – before I started doing … Read more >>

In keeping with Orlando’s divided personality, perhaps, there seemed to be an easy half and a difficult half to this puzzle – not that I’m assigning a specific gender to either! I got … Read more >>

Solving time – about 45 mins. This was a real brute of a puzzle from Araucaria. I struggled all the way with it, but there were some obscure words and a couple of … Read more >>

(If I were clever enough, I’d write this entry using only one vowel, but I ain’t, so here goes.)   Solving time – 7 mins Given the restriction that the setter has imposed upon … Read more >>