Independent 7871 by Phi
It’s that Friday feeling, Phi returns. Can’t spot any Ninas or themes – ghost or otherwise but I was wrong last time I said that about a Phi puzzle. This seemed quite easy … Read more >>
Financial Times no.13,893 by GOZO
A real wrong ‘un (or, if you prefer, curveball) from Gozo here. I think this is the first FT puzzle I’ve blogged that comes with special instructions; the theme may well have a … Read more >>
Independent 7,870 / Monk
I looked through my past blogs this morning to see if I had blogged a Monk before, and to my surprise, since Monk has featured on my crosswording landscape for a very long … Read more >>
Guardian 25,524 / Puck
After the delightful Arachne yesterday, another welcome post-Christmas present to off-set the foul weather, in this quite challenging and entertaining puzzle from Puck. The characteristically witty and ingenious cluing provided a number of … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,886 / Dante – Prize Puzzle – 27 December 2011
I don’t blog Financial Times crosswords very often, so I haven’t encountered Dante before. As I solved the puzzle, I thought the cluing style was familiar with very smooth surfaces, lots of double … Read more >>
Guardian Christmas Prize No 25,514 by Araucaria
It was my privilege this year to solve and blog this puzzle whose theme was hinted at in the introduction: “Many of the clues are of a kind and may not be further … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,885 – Christmas Crossword by Gozo
When this puzzle eventually became available on-line on Boxing Day I thought “Oh good. I enjoy alphabetical jigsaws” so I proceeded to convert the pdf into a format where the font size was … Read more >>
Independent 7,869/Dac
A new year, but the same old Dac. Which of course means consistently elegant clueing and lovely surfaces. Here’s to another 51 of these before the year’s out! He’s got one over on … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,892 by Monk
A good crossword with quite a wide variation in the difficulty of the clues. Thank you Monk. I got most of the solutions quite easily, but then took a long time to get to solve … Read more >>
Guardian 25,523 – Arachne
A nice mixture of clueing devices in Arachne’s web today. Mostly not too difficult, but I was fooled by a hidden answer till right at the end, and there are a couple of … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1209: The Calm Before The Storm by Samuel
The preamble stated "in every clue, the wordplay leads to the answer together with an extra letter not to be entered in the grid. In clue order these give the first line of … Read more >>
Independent 7868/Raich
I posted the other day saying that in my opinion Raich’s puzzles were the easiest (but among the best) of those in the Indy. At first this statement seemed to be coming back … Read more >>
Guardian 25,522 – Chifonie
This is a quick and simple stroll through the park. Very straightforward and easy. ACROSS 1 SUPERB Ins of UP (riding) in SERB (European) 4 MAGNETIC Ins of NET (trap)in MAGIC 9 OVOID … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 25521 Rufus
A nice easy puzzle to start the week, and the year with. Rufus’s trademark cryptic and double definitions, anagrams, and clever surfaces are here, and some possibly nautical references also. Thanks Rufus. And … Read more >>
Independent 7867 by Tyrus
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism When I saw this was a Tyrus themed puzzle, my temptation was to start hitting the cheat button straight away. If it hadn’t been … Read more >>