Never knowingly undersolved
According to Hugh Stephenson, the Guardian crossword editor, Paul is the toughest of all the setters on the team. This puzzle certainly suggests that he’s not fibbing! My solving time was 29:44. I … Read more >>
Across 1 QUAKERS – r, square (anag). The formal name for the Quakers is the Religious Society of Friends. 5 PELISSE – a long cloak, often with a fur lining. Homophone clue as … Read more >>
This had all the attributes I associate with Dac – flowing clues, variation, trickery, always accessible in the end. Average in difficulty for a Dac for me – solved in 17 mins. ACROSS … Read more >>
Solving time : 45 minute bus journey plus some looking up when I got to work. I had hoped that a Tuesday Guardian puzzle would be a gentle start to my blogging, instead … Read more >>
If you’re familiar with Virgilius (Brendan in the Guardian) you were probably expecting some sort of theme or grid wizardry when you saw today’s puzzle. Somewhat surprising then, to discover that today’s is … Read more >>
Solving time: 29’ Rufus puzzles are always fair, fairly straightforward with sensible surface readings and rarely does he use obscure vocabulary. He’s considered at the easy end of the Guardian scale. In this … Read more >>
Today’s Guardian puzzle is the last by the late Bunthorne. More from someone after the competition closing date…
I found it hard to get going with this; I did about 6 clues in 20 minutes and then got stuck. So I did something else for a while, came back to it … Read more >>
(a rival entry for the other I just glimpsed – let’s see how far we agree on clues to write about…) Solving time 4:32 … which is my view of Phi puzzles in general … Read more >>
Phi is another of the Indy’s weekly regulars. I first encountered him in advanced puzzles. Puzzles characterised by very accurate construction – I find I always understand the answer, once found. This make … Read more >>
Solving time : ? done in dribs and drabs through the day As I started to solve this puzzle I quickly realised it might be pangrammatic as I’d got a Z, X and … Read more >>
Solving time: 45’ Rover is on the more rigorous end of the Guardian scale: he (she?) typically has both clean wordplay and sensible surface readings. Today’s puzzle has some good puns (1A, 17A, … Read more >>
Solving time: 1h+ Ah, Araucaria. The most Ximenean of the crowd in terms of wordplay but absolutely a horror when it comes to meaningful surfaces. Today’s theme is putting out fires. As per … Read more >>
Dac is one of the 5 setters who appears in the Indy (including IoS) every week. One of the best clue writers around – clues always reading very well. Noting solving times over … Read more >>
We don’t see Janus very often these days and Monday is usually Rufus-day, as it also is in the Telegraph I believe. Anyway, it’s always nice finish a crossword with a few more … Read more >>