Guardian 24163/Rover
Solving time 5:44 That was probably the easiest crossword I’ve ever done in the Guardian. Probably the only tricky word was 19ac, but it was an expression I knew from somewhere, so no … Read more >>
Independent 6506/Monk — Nina!
The football theme stands out from the clues if not the grid entries, only 9a is a footballing term. I thought that was it then I noticed the letters in the first and … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 914 by Quixote
As indicated eslewhere, the first of a shorter blog on Quixote puzzles. Will try to concentrate on a small number of clues focussing on the trickier ones and those I liked the most. … Read more >>
Financial Times 12544/Jason
A nice enough puzzle but a few too many cryptic definitions for my liking. Lots for new solvers to get their 5As stuck into though. Across 1 WIND-BAG – a cryptic definition with … Read more >>
Guardian 24162/Brummie – from a Stan(d in)
I’m indebted to one of our regular commenters – stan – for this blog as we had a bit of a mix up this week and I assigned a puzzle to a blogger … Read more >>
Financial Times 12,534 by Cincinnus
Tougher than usual Cincinnus perhaps with some challenging clues (for me 1A, 1D, 17D and 25D) and a couple of beauties (28A, 15D). Across 1. LOBELIAS – ELIA (essayist) in LOBS (throws). It … Read more >>
Independent 6505/Dac
This seemed like a harder crossword than a standard Dac. Looking back I can’t quite see why though although three words being new to me slowed me down (1ac, 27ac, 20d) Across 1 … Read more >>
Guardian 24161/Araucaria – the full monty
My Sheffield education was provided to me by the movie “The Full Monty” and the occasional Eurosport broadcast of an endless snooker match at The Crucible. Oh yes there are a couple of … Read more >>
FT 12,542 by Aardvark
I solved this one in fits and starts, although each quadrant of the grid fell into place pretty readily once I’d cracked the four “long” clues. I use quote marks because no answer … Read more >>
Independent 6504/Virgilius
Thematically, there seems to be quite a bit going on in this puzzle. We have horses/ponies (1A, 10A, part of 14A, 17A, 21A and part of 26A, along with a reference to a … Read more >>
Quixote and Everyman puzzles
We need to reduce the workload of our bloggers so we would like to stop blogging the two puzzles at the easier end of the scale which get read and commented on the least: Everyman and … Read more >>
Independent 6503 by Math
This had a theme, but I proved you did not need to know it to solve the puzzle, because I tumbled to it only when verifying for this blog having filled the grid … Read more >>
Guardian 24160/ Rufus August 20th 2007 Gentle for Monday.
Across 1 BAY RUM anagram of may rub. In the old days barbers would offer it as an after shave , posh barbers still do. It’s a distillate from Rum and the leaves … Read more >>
Azed 1837/uh-uh
Another mistake from Azed at 1A – the last Azed I did (1831) had one as well. What is the world coming to? I did the first half of this without a dictionary … Read more >>
Guardian 24153 (Sat 11 Aug)/Paul – Centre stage
Solving time: 9:29 A chocolate theme this week, with four examples of ‘centres’, i.e. the gooey bits in the middle. Overall probably a bit easier than usual for Paul. * = anagram, “X” … Read more >>