Guardian 23990/Taupi – Racy
A couple of racy clues and American states. Unrelated. I found myself solving many of the clues from the definition and struggling to work out the wordplay while writing these notes – I … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 885 by Quixote – not too difficult
I found this one fairly straightforward. Solving time: 14 mins * = anagram ACROSS 5 TEMP O RISE 7 CROW D Murder is a collective word for crows. 10 ANNE LI (51) DAN … Read more >>
Independent 6332 by Punk – Got there in the end
This is Punk’s third puzzle in the Indy. He’s Paul in the Guardian, who I’ve heard praised a lot, but he’s said to be hard, and he also sets in the Times. So I approached … Read more >>
Situation Vacant
We’re looking for another Independent crossword solver to join our team. You’ll need to be able to post once a week (on any weekday as we have a rota which changes each week) … Read more >>
Guardian 23,989, Arachne: Nag a ram, perhaps?
What makes a good anagram indicator? This puzzle combines what, to me, are some excellent anagrinds and some weaker ones, so I thought I’d set out my own personal likes and dislikes. “At … Read more >>
Independent 6331/Dac – Pathé-specific
Solving time: 7:35 A fairly standard offering from Dac today: mostly straightforward clue constructions with a couple of more obscure answers/names and a bit of licence with link words. Is there a political … Read more >>
Independent 6331 / Dac – Tougher than usual
Apologies for the lkate post – my briadband went down and I couldn’t let anyone know! Thanks to a very patient BT person (and no thanks to half a dozen complete incompetents), I … Read more >>
Guardian 23988 / Paul – difficult
Solving time 14:42 Not much to do here, so let’s have a go. This was pretty tough, and there are three clues I don’t understand or can’t quite swallow. For me, these slightly … Read more >>
Independent 6330/Virgilius
Got off to a slow start, then raced through most of the puzzle and ground to a halt with 5A and 2D. I also twigged one part of theme before even solving a … Read more >>
Guardian 23987/Araucaria
An enjoyable puzzle today from Araucaria, which either means that there wasn’t too much non-Ximenean shenanigans going on, or that I’m actually getting used to his style (however, the wordplay escaped me on … Read more >>
Independent 6329 / Math – pretty tough
Solving time 10:00 + ?? Had most of this done in about 8 mins, but was stuck on 5 and 16 – I had an answer for 16 but as it seemed to … Read more >>
Guardian 23,986/Rufus – Typical Monday fare
It’s Monday, so it must be Rufus. His puzzles are generally very easy (8 minutes to solve today’s), and this is mainly because his clues are not always terribly cryptic, and his definitions … Read more >>
Everyman 3147/Jan 21 – Newton’s cradle
I had no idea that the mesmerizing 5 silver balls swinging back and forth on my desk was called a Newton’s cradle (17A). Across 3 DAY TRIPPE,R – (pity padre)* followed by R … Read more >>
Azed 1808 – Pearst off
My first Azed. Definitely hard work: I invested at least 3 hours total. The vast majority of words I had to extract from Chambers. Azed’s saving grace is meticulous clueing – and, in … Read more >>
Independent 6322/Nimrod – Tuning in…
A bit easier than last week’s Nimrod I think but there were still a few I didn’t understand. I’m obviously not tuned in to the Nimrodian frequency at the moment but that didn’t … Read more >>