Guardian 25,835 / Paul

A classic Paul puzzle, brimming with clever, witty clues and ingenious constructions, providing several ahas and smiles while solving, along with – not surprisingly – a couple of lavatorial references.     16ac … Read more >>

Financial Times 14,195 – Dante

Monday Prize Crossword/Dec 24 A proper crossword consists of a grid and a set of clues, right?  Dante’s Christmas present had no grid (we were invited to fill in the blanks ourselves) while … Read more >>

2013 Crossword Centenary

This year is the centenary of the crossword, the first one being published in the New York World on December 21st 1913. To mark this, John Halpern (aka Paul, Mudd, Dada, Punk) is … Read more >>

Financial Times 14,200 by Gozo

Apologies for the late post today.  Any help with 20dn? Gozo crosswords are on a subject, I think of them as lessons in Crossword School.  Today we are having games.  I found this quick … Read more >>

Independent 8180 / Dac

Dac continues in 2013, as he has done throughout 2012, with a well constructed challenge for the commuter on the Clapham omnibus.       Dac doesn’t do themes or tricks or pangrams; … Read more >>

Guardian 25,834 – Philistine

This is Philistine’s eleventh Guardian puzzle, and the third one I’ve blogged – checking the history reminded me that the last one had a rather bizarre clue for TOUOUSE-LAUTREC. There’s nothing so quite … Read more >>

Independent 8179/Raich

A well-constructed crossword from Raich which for some reason I found a bit harder than usual.  Can’t see why now, because the clues all seem to be straightforward.  On this particular day you’d think that … Read more >>