Financial Times 12476/Highlander – Gentle start
We start our FT blogging with a nice and easy puzzle from Highlander. I’m not the world’s quickest solver but I think I managed this in something like 7-8 minutes. I haven’t commented … Read more >>
Starting today – the Financial Times crossword
From today, we shall be blogging the Financial Times puzzles. We may not be able to cover every day of the week as we don’t yet have enough volunteers but hopefully this will … Read more >>
Independent 6437/Morph
I think this is an easier crossword than Morph’s previous Independent crosswords, it’s certainly the quickest I’ve solved a Morph! That’s not a criticism though as it’s thoroughly fair and characteristically entertaining. Anyway, … Read more >>
Guardian 24094/Rufus – heartening
Solving time: 10’ Heartening start to the week after the weekend puzzles: I do know how to parse a cryptic clue after all. Not too many cryptic defs either – but a couple … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 47 by Pasquale – Grauniad
A pleasing puzzle based on the affectionate nickname of the paper, famous for its misprints. The eight-letter words had to be entered by shifting their letters in the same way so e.g. as … Read more >>
Everyman 3165/record time
Solving time: 12’ Fastest solve for me ever – I think. Even managed to spell AUF WIEDERSEHEN correctly the first time. I recognized SHREVEPORT pretty quickly as well probably because it figured as … Read more >>
Azed 1,826: obscure names and words
I actually finished the last couple of words (SOARE and EXORDIA)around 11am on Saturday, so could have made it to the post with this, but I couldn’t quite bear to part with it. The … Read more >>
Guardian 24,087 (Sat 26 May)/Paul – Capital punishment
Solving time: 23:35 After five minutes I had solved four clues. Then 15ac helped me tumble to the theme: ‘S’ = ‘State capital’. Most of the puzzle then fell out quickly but I … Read more >>
Independent 6430/Merlin – Sticky ends.
Last Saturday’s Monk puzzle was difficult enough but I thought this offering from Merlin was even tougher. This was mainly due to the theme of the puzzle – all but two of the … Read more >>
Independent 6435/Bannsider – Sergeant Pepper’s 40!
I remembered slightly late in the day that it was my blog today and dashed out for the paper. I’m not sure Bannsider sits well with having had a few drinks at lunchtime! … Read more >>
Guardian 24,092/Quantum
This puzzle is dominated by four long down entries. Once you have solved them, the rest of the answers become much easier to fathom out. It was generally fair, and there are some … Read more >>
Inquisitor 21 / Phi – Spooner strikes back
Solving time: 36 minutes A simple but original gimmick and fairly easy clues to non-theme words combined to make this a quick but still entertaining solve. Experience of Azed’s Spoonerism puzzles also helped … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 902 by Quixote
The usual excellent fare. Solving time: 13 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 SEAMSTRESS Cryptic definition 6 SCAM(p) 14 SWIMMING POOL Which in crossword language could mean – make an anagram of it … Read more >>
Independent 6434 by Phi – Absolutely Not!
The usual top quality puzzle from Phi, with all clear in the end. Held up a little by two musical clues (9 ac, 4 dn) crossing, but got there in the end. In … Read more >>
Guardian 24091/Paul – one’s or your?
Solving time: 35’ Lots of wondrous wordplay to admire here – and some to wonder about. Sometimes numbers in clues really are numbers – and not other clues. The editing isn’t The Guardian’s … Read more >>