Independent – Page 220 – Fifteensquared

Independent 9,361 by Radian

October 14, 2016 at 9:24 am by John

A nice crossword from Radian today. Lots of pleasant clues with smooth surfaces, although as an ex-maths teacher I have misgivings about 14ac.

Independent 9360 / Lohengrin

October 13, 2016 at 8:10 am by Bertandjoyce

This is the first Lohengrin puzzle we have blogged, and it really had the old grey matter whirring! At one point we were so stumped we thought we’d have to give up on … Read more >>

Independent 9,359 / Dac

October 12, 2016 at 12:13 pm by RatkojaRiku

There is something reassuringly familiar about logging on to one’s computer and finding that one’s Wednesday morning crossword has been set by Dac. And, of course, Dac has not disappointed, providing us with … Read more >>

Independent 9358 / Hoskins

October 11, 2016 at 7:30 am by duncanshiell

A crossword today from Hoskins with a couple of names or geographical locations as well as some slightly unusual words among the entries. The appearance of names and unusual words is … Read more >>

Independent 9,357 by Phi

October 10, 2016 at 9:00 am by NealH

It’s fairly unusual to see Phi on a Monday, so this was a rare treat for me. After a run of quite difficult Monday puzzles, it was also nice to have something a little easier to get one’s teeth into. I thought this was very enjoyable and was able to keep going without long periods of getting stuck.

Independent on Sunday 1390/Daedalus

October 9, 2016 at 12:01 am by Pierre

I simply cannot get on this setter’s wavelength, which must be frustrating for him because I seem to end up blogging the majority of his puzzles. It took me three goes to finish … Read more >>

Independent 9356 / Hob

October 8, 2016 at 8:55 am by Bertandjoyce

Well…… this was a bit of a ‘tour de force’ by Hob. It wasn’t until Joyce came to write up the blog that Bert suddenly worked out the parsing for 24d and 19d. … Read more >>

Independent 9355 / Phi

October 7, 2016 at 8:11 am by Bertandjoyce

Unfortunately, we didn’t really enjoy this offering from Phi today. When this happens, regardless of the setter, we both try and analyse why – perhaps today it was the fact that some of … Read more >>

Independent 9,354 / S.Park

October 7, 2016 at 9:21 amOctober 6, 2016 at 12:51 pm by RatkojaRiku

This was my first experience of solving, let alone blogging, a puzzle by S.Park, although a quick trawl through the site reveals that this is the third Indy puzzle published under this pseudonym. … Read more >>

Independent 9353 / Serpent

October 5, 2016 at 7:30 am by duncanshiell

It’s Wednesday, it’s D.. – no it’s not, it’s Serpent with what I thought was quite a tough puzzle I found this one of the most difficult Independent puzzles that … Read more >>

Independent 9,352 by Eimi

October 4, 2016 at 10:17 am by John

It seems that Eimi wants to make a point to all us pedants who endlessly carp on about less than 50% checking: more than 57% of the answers are of this type, which is clearly of no concern to him.

Two other things struck me about this offering from Eimi: the apparently large number of full anagrams (seven I think), and what Brian Greer once referred to in his excellent crossword articles in the Times of the late 90s as something whose exact name I can’t remember, but it was typically apposite and referred to anagrams which hit you in the face and can be nothing but anagrams (‘Paint Lucy’, ‘Canopus’, ‘Dench loafs’). Which is not to say that I found it easy: as you’d expect Eimi has included various references to a world that is less well-known to me than to him, and occasionally some rather good clues (I’d have liked the RSC one if it had been printed properly).