Everyman 4,076 by Everyman

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Pretty difficult this week I thought — I often solve Everyman when I’m not blogging and it can be far easier than this. Why do I always get the tough ones? The usual Everyman trademarks are there and coloured above. It seemed there were more cases than usual of there being a need for explanation.

Definitions in crimson, underlined. Indicators (anagram, reversal, hidden, homophone etc) in italics. Anagrams indicated (like this)* or *(like this). Link-words in green.

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Azed 2737

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It’s competition week for Azed, but it’s just a plain puzzle.  No doubt there will be complex puzzles around Christmas and New Year.       I found this more difficult than many … Read more >>

Quick Cryptic 36 by Picaroon

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This is the thirty-sixth Guardian Quick Cryptic, a series of 11 x 11 crosswords designed to support beginners learning cryptic crosswords.  The whole point of these crosswords is support and encouragement of new solvers, so special rules for these crosswords apply – see here – those rules include not posting solving times.  There is a summary of the tricks used in the first six months here. This puzzle can be found here.

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Independent 11,905 by Twin

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A Thursday challenge from Twin; I enjoyed blogging this setter’s Indy puzzle a month ago, and was happy to meet again.
NOTE: There was a glitch on The Independent website, which caused a four-year-old Tyrus puzzle to appear. This has now been corrected.
If you want to see the Tyrus blog (10,655) then click here: https://www.fifteensquared.net/2020/12/05/independent-10655-by-tyrus/

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Guardian 29,557 / Fed

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Fed makes a welcome return to the mid-week slot with a puzzle that I found most enjoyable and rewarding. Lots of clever and witty clues, as usual – just one piece of parsing … Read more >>