Guardian Cryptic 25722 Audreus
This is a new setter for me. A check on the Guardian website shows her last crossword there was in July 2010. Initially I had nothing in the upper half, and had to … Read more >>
Financial Times 14,081 – Dante
Monday Prize Crossword/13 Aug Friendly crossword (which you may find here) in the well-known Dante style. Some really nice touches today, but also The Chestnut of all Chestnuts (15d). Definitions are underlined wherever possible … Read more >>
Financial Times 14,080 by Cinephile
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of August 11, 2012 I found this to be an exceptionally good and enjoyable Cinephile. The clues I especially like are 7A (TAPE), 11A (PRIEST), 14D (DOWNGRADE) … Read more >>
Financial Times 14088 Phssthpok
Apologies for the very much later than usual posting. The gremlin struck the FT crossword site again, and yesterday’s puzzle wasn’t available until this morning. This is like reporting yesterday’s news, so this is … Read more >>
Financial Times 14,089 by Gozo
Very enjoyable, thank you Gozo. All the across solutions are pieces of classical music, I had some fun looking them up in Wikipedia and Youtube. Most were familiar, some were new … Read more >>
Guardian 25,721 / Arachne
There’s been a rather longer than usual gap since the last Arachne puzzle, so I feel particularly lucky to have drawn this one. I think I found it rather easier than usual, except … Read more >>
Independent 8,067 / Dac
Dac is appearing today in his regular Wednesday slot, although it has not fallen to me to blog one of his puzzles for quite a while. As is customary for me when solving … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1242: PRIZEWINNER by Schadenfreude
Two Schadenfreudes in a row for Hihoba to blog. Another mercifully brief preamble told us that there was a letter to be removed from each clue, always leaving a word but not necessarily … Read more >>
Independent 8066 / Samuel
I have blogged Samuel puzzles in the Saturday Independent Magazine Inquisitor series, but I don’t remember even seeing, let alone blogging a Samuel in the Independent daily series. This was … Read more >>
Placeholder Financial Times 14088
I’m afraid the puzzle hasn’t been posted on the FT site, and therefore I’ll only be able to blog it later than usual, perhaps even tomorrow, if it doesn’t appear today. It would … Read more >>
Guardian 25,720 – Chifonie
Quite an easy and straight-forward set of clues. Place cursor over clue number to read the clue Across 1 DESPATCH DES (some in French) PATCH (piece) 5 BALSAM BALSA (wood) … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic 666 / Pan
This was a considerable improvement on the last Quiptic by Pan that I reviewed, but I was a tad disappointed that the puzzle number failed to lead to Revelations about The Beast! Most … Read more >>
Guardian 25,719 – Rufus
Apologies for a blog that is both late and rather brief – I’ve been distracted by urgent work-related matters. Anyway, this is Rufus in his usual style, with lots of double and cryptic … Read more >>
Independent 8065 by Quixote
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I thought this was a slightly harder Quixote with a stronger than normal use of proper nouns, not all of them very topical (e.g. … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1,171
This generally went quite smoothly, though I did have to check 29ac and 8dn before being confident enough to write them in. A careless slip at 30ac made 27dn unsolvable until my mistake … Read more >>