Private Eye/Cyclops 343 – Undone
I’m feeling a bit “undone” myself at the moment – a fortnight into the smoking ban and thus a fortnight into my latest attempt to forego the evil weed. How can I possibly … Read more >>
Independent 6473/Merlin
Across 1 O,A,FISH,NESS – “o” is a short form of “of”. Good clue to get us going. 10 (ACTIONS IN A LAB IN)* – CANNIBALISATION has a few meanings, apart from the obvious … Read more >>
Everyman 3171/back in Scotland
Back to Scotland again this week with Muriel SPARK. More than Everyman’s usual share of weak surfaces though: e.g. 9A, 2D, 5D, 17D. The rest are quite good though so perhaps this isn’t … Read more >>
Guardian 24,123 (Sat 7 Jul)/Shed – Cea mulpa
Solving time: 10 mins, one mistake (14ac) I liked this, lots of inventive wordplay without being too complex or convoluted like some Guardian crosswords. * = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’. Across … Read more >>
Independent 6471 by Phi
Solving time: 20 mins < = reversal * = anagram ACROSS 5 STR (I P LIGHT) ING 8 SECOND S LIP 9 TR(O)Y 10 TE (A PART) Y YET< 12 A GREED … Read more >>
Guardian 24128, Paul — spot the author
To my relief, on a day with multiple unexpected work deadlines to meet, this was one of Paul’s easier puzzles, and I polished it off reasonably quickly. Solving it depended on getting Truman … Read more >>
Azed reports
Some of you will have noticed that we haven’t had many of these lately. As I write this, I’m checking which of us are happy to write Azed reports. We already have enough … Read more >>
Independent 6466 (7th July 2007)/Bannsider
I thought this was a fantastic puzzle, maybe my favourite of the year so far. Not easy though – I got the first few across clues and one or two downs fairly quickly … Read more >>
Financial Times 12506/Orense
I found this very straightforward and a quick solve but there were a few nice touches. Just a short review because most of the clues are reasonably self-explanatory but if anyone’s unsure of … Read more >>
Inquisitor 27 – BUST by Lato
I tore this one out of the paper, took it on holiday, and over-confidently left it until the day we were coming home. It turned out to be very tough – if our flight … Read more >>
Financial Times 12499 by FALCON
Across 1. ANTENATAL CLINIC – cryptic def. issue=children 9. TH(e)ROW,IN 10. NUT,CASE 11. ELITE (hidden) 12. DEODORANT (too darned)* – good surface. 13. ETRUSCANS (runes cast)* 15. C,HAIR – ‘Hair’ is a musical … Read more >>
Indendent on Sunday 908 by Quixote – harder than normal
I think Quixote commented on this site some time ago that the aim was to keep the puzzle fairly easy, but that he would put a more difficult one in from time to … Read more >>
Independent 6470/Nestor — some of it’s Greek to me!
A challenging puzzle in parts with some superb charade clues that inventively stitch together the component parts and at the same time have very good surfaces. One word was new to me and … Read more >>
Guardian 24,126 – Brummie (Weird Science (see 1,9)
Sorry for the lateness of this blog; I thought I was due to do Friday’s this week, and only realised that it was my turn when the puzzle hadn’t been blogged. Upon checking … Read more >>
Guardian 24127/Rover – holi shaman!
Spent longer than usual since there were quite a few clues for which I understood either the wordplay or the definition but not both. One or two is par for the course – … Read more >>