Independent 6368/Nimrod — Think!
After Tuesday’s breeze, for me, today’s puzzle was a nightmare. I bought the paper late, just couldn’t get into the puzzle and ended up having to cheat (TEA) to finish it with two … Read more >>
Guardian 24,025/Quantum – beaten by one clue
Fairly straightforward crossword, with some good clues and one I couldn’t work out (23ac – thanks BenIngton). After the fare served up by Brummie and Paul so far this week, this was less … Read more >>
Independent 6367/Dac
Another demonstration of why crosswords don’t have to be difficult to be entertaining. Interesting, and subtle, ambiguity at 3A though. Across 3 (FAR LESS BIG)* – I filled in FIBRE GLASS at first … Read more >>
Guardian 24024 / Paul A Ripping Yarn!
Solving time: 21 minutes As one of the stars in the Guardian firmament, Paul can always be relied upon to provide an enjoyable challenge that will produce a smile or two en route. … Read more >>
Guardian 24023/Brummie
An excellent, if easy, puzzle from Brummie with a surplus of good anagrams and partial anagrams. Some of the clues were very wordy, several running to three lines, but every word seemed to … Read more >>
Independent 6366/Virgilius – Revelation
A quick start and middle was followed by a gradual slowdown as I picked my way through the bottom left-hand corner. Enjoyed both the fast part and the slower part though. Still not … Read more >>
Independent 6365 by Hypnos – Gentle start to the week
A pleasing and not too difficult puzzle by Hypnos, one of the occasional setters. Quite a few anagrams among the 22 clues. When I saw the central across clue contained “theme”, I thought the puzzle … Read more >>
Guardian 24,022, Rufus: The Rufus paradox
Doing better than last week – I’ve managed to post in the morning even though the paperboy delivered the Telegraph with ‘Sorry, no Gaurdian’ written on it (no irony intended, I assume). Sorry if … Read more >>
Sloggers and Betters 2
For a second time, some of the contributors to this blog, Times for the Times and RTC3 are meeting in a London pub. The chosen venue is “Shaw’s Booksellers” in St Andrew’s Hill, near Blackfriars, on … Read more >>
Everyman 3153/Mar 4 – harder than usual
This Everyman was harder for me than the run of the mill. Me or the puzzle? Not sure why: no “dictionary words” per se. Only one reference that I needed to look up … Read more >>
Independent 6358/Nimrod
I bow to no-one in my admiration of Nimrod, despite the fact that some his stuff goes completely over my head, but I don’t think this was one of his better efforts. I … Read more >>
Guardian 24,015 (Sat 3rd March)/Araucaria – Land fill
Solving time: 14:48 The preamble to this puzzle read: “Lands here are 4-ed [linked] (as our non-PC forebears would think) by 14 down [‘The missing’].” The grid contains eight countries. At first I … Read more >>
Guardian 24020/Rover — House & Home
Rover, is another Guardian setter who overuses the cryptic definition. Some of the definitions here just weren’t cryptic or were very obvious. When Rover stayed away from this device there were some good … Read more >>
Independent 6363/Phi
A very enjoyable crossword if not very difficult. Mostly charades with partial anagrams and a couple of long anagrams thrown in. Quite a few containers and reversals but that didn’t really strike me … Read more >>
Inquisitor #9 – Search by Loda
Solving time: 3-4 hours An nice example of a fairly standard advanced cryptic puzzle type – “entries mangled according to a theme to be identified”. In this case, there are some thematic entries … Read more >>