Guardian 25,069 / Shed
My first blog for four weeks and so, first of all, many thanks to mhl and Gaufrid for standing in for me while I was, firstly, marking exam scripts and then away on … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,435 – Falcon
Monday Prize Crossword on 12 July 2010 Falcon is another gentle compiler who will give solvers a pleasant start to the week. Nothing very complicated; but enjoyable, nevertheless. ACROSS 1 AMBUSH AM (American) … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,434 by Mudd
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of July 10 Another strong puzzle from Mudd. My favourite clue here is 8D (TOOTHPICK). Across 1. SQUAD CAR – QUAD (one of four) in SCAR (trauma) … Read more >>
Independent 7,417/Dac
Very much a puzzle of 2 halves for me, specifically a pretty easy top half and a much, much harder bottom half. Nevertheless, fantastic clues as always from Dac, 24A being my pick … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,443 / Dogberry
We only see Dogberry a couple of times each year (at most) and invariably on a Wednesday. I’m not sure why this is because Wednesday puzzles usually either have a theme or gimmick … Read more >>
Guardian 25,068 – Audreus
After a long break, Audreus seems to be becoming quite a regular again. This was a fairly typical example of her work – nothing too difficult, apart from an obscure meaning at 21dn, … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1134 – Octagonal by Eddie
We were asked to find and rearrange eight unclued answers before entering them in the grid. I had ???MN?Y for one and A?ILR? for another quite quickly. This led inevitably to thoughts of … Read more >>
Independent 7413/Tees
A nice crossword from Tees. Having solved 7ac and 9ac first and had a good idea about 20/23ac I feared a football-related crossword. Mercifully, apart from one or two answers, apparently no. Perhaps … Read more >>
Guardian 25067 – Araucaria
Once again, I have been royally entertained and tantalised by The Master. He has woven such a rich tapestry of literary references that blogging this puzzle took many times what it took to … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,442 / Armonie
Nothing too difficult here, except that the explanation for 21 down eludes me. As usual, Armonie’s clues pack an amazing amount into very few words. Across 1 NOONTIDE *(TO DINE ON) 5 CROOKS … Read more >>
Appeal of bells
As some of you already know, we — Jane Teather (Jetdoc) and John Henderson (Enigmatist/Elgar/Nimrod/Io) — are getting married this Friday, 23 July. This is a truly cruciverbal match — we met through … Read more >>
Guardian 25,066 – Rufus
The usual bits and pieces from Rufus. A couple of o’er hasty entries slowed us down a bit, but overall this was much as one expects. ACROSS 7. FOR BORE ‘a tedious man’ … Read more >>
Independent 7412 by Hypnos
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I found this fairly straightforward apart from the two down the right-hand edge, neither of which I fully understand. There were a few arty … Read more >>
Private Eye/Cyclops 421 – Hanoi or bust
So there I was wondering where to do my Eye crossword this time. I thought what about another time and found myself in a smoky pub in about 1972. “The Worlds End”. God … Read more >>
AZED No. 1,989 Plain
Nick: A perhaps more difficult AZED this week, due to the strange grid having two words per quarter connecting each ‘mini-grid’; for me, this made it like four very small crosswords, with the … Read more >>