Independent 6594 by Virgilius
This site was ringing with praise for Virgilius last week. This puzzle was another excellent example of why. A theme (as usual) reasonably obvious and which helped speed up solving at the end. … Read more >>
Guardian 24,251, Puck: Horse sense
I got about half-way through before I spotted this puzzle’s usp – every clue refers to horses, except for 18 down whose answer contains the word. This means some ingenious and intricate wordplay, … Read more >>
Guardian 24250 / Rufus
Greetings and apologies for the delay. While in hospital recently I managed to have a serious problem with my laptop which meant that my PC Doctor had to reformat the hard disk and … Read more >>
Independent 6593 by Dac
After a really tough puzzle by Tees last week, I was relieved to find this one was a little easier. I even had some time to read the paper (although most of the … Read more >>
Private Eye/Cyclops 353 – 3 Cities
When I solved this I particularly enjoyed it. That could be because I found a bit of piece a quiet and finished it uninterrupted for a change, but it is a solid product … Read more >>
Read this BEFORE turning to Quixote 929 IoS 2 12 2007!
The solution appears next to the puzzle! Ask someone to cut it out or mask it. I will not be solving it so no blog this week – anyone who wishes can step … Read more >>
Azed 1852 – Plain
Solving time 30:50 without books, one mistake – or c. 38 mins with confirming look-ups and one correction. Mostly fairly straightforward, but there are one or two unresolved points where you may be … Read more >>
Guardian 24,243 (Sat 24 Nov)/Araucaria – Black and white and read all over
Solving time: 14:58 Another well-constructed alphabetical jigsaw from Araucaria. When I solved his last one I decided afterwards that I should have tried to fit answers into the grid more quickly, so I … Read more >>
Financial Times 12629 by Flimsy
I don’t normally blog the FT but as it was the only free newspaper with a decent crossword available on the Heathrow to Newcastle flight yesterday I gave it a go. At the … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,628 by Bradman
A good, challenging and satisfying puzzle which like most from Bradman is a little on the tough side for a daily FTer. Challenging enough in fact that I have yet to complete the … Read more >>
Anagram Friday
Not having been lucky enough to get a crossword to solve for a while I was slightly disappointed that this one was so undemanding. I got through it in under 8 minutes. Still … Read more >>
Independent 6591/Eimi – Italian Job
Nice puzzle from The Editor with a theme that revealed itself in two parts for me: first, cities then Italian cities. Plaudits for getting so many in, especially when so many of them … Read more >>
Independent 6586/Nimrod (24-11-07)
I know next to nothing about horse-racing so once I’d twigged the theme I had to use Google to check a couple of answers that I got from the wordplay (1a and 28a). There are … Read more >>
Beelzebub 927/Columba (18-11-07)
A very enjoyable puzzle from a very reliable setter. It might be my imagination but there seemed to be a few more obscure words than there usually are in Beelzebub puzzles but I … Read more >>
Inquisitor 47 – Missing Letter by Schadenfreude
The preamble stated that ‘before solving, one letter must be changed in the definition part of 25 clues, the new letters all being different. The missing 26th letter is to be revealed as … Read more >>