Guardian 23,976 – Guess the Setter?
For early birds, the online version of today’s puzzle provided the solver with a challenge – “Guess the Setter”. The setter’s name didn’t appear in the crossword heading, however it did appear in … Read more >>
Independent 6318 by Virgilius – couples
Whether it was deliberate after the Bannsider debut yesterday, this was very straightforward. I’d everything, except one, solved in 12 mins, but that took me another 10 mins to get so solving time … Read more >>
Guardian 23975/Brendan – back to the books
A literary feast with clever use of grid geometry. I was helped by incidentally having a copy of “The New Yorker” next to me with the name JULIAN BARNES (1A, 4A) on the … Read more >>
Independent 6317 / A warm welcome to Bannsider
Solving time: 43 minutes I rushed to the paper this morning to see who would be the author of today’s challenge and was surprised to spy a new name Bannsider. First thought is … Read more >>
Guardian 23974/Rufus – unfaulty
I did the Times2 Concise today which is why “unfaulty” is on my mind. As per usual, I find Rufus’s style to be clean, with good surfaces and not very complicated wordplay. I … Read more >>
Everyman 3145/Jan 7 – Polchard and neroli
A leftover xmas clue (7D) and two new words. The nice thing about Everyman is that Chambers isn’t strictly necessary usually if you have the courage of your wordplay convictions: e.g. POCHARD and … Read more >>
Independent 6310/Monk – In addition
Even before you’d filled in a single answer, you knew that there was something else going on in this puzzle: the plus signs in 2 across and 2 down clues, 8 more in … Read more >>
Guardian 23,967 / Pasquale – ceci n’est pas facile
Solving time 13:30 Quite tricky this one – partly because of 22,11,12 which I didn’t get until many checking letters were in place – “C _ C _ / N _ _ _ … Read more >>
Independent 6315 / Phi A Pleasant Stroll
Solving Time: 19 minutes When you are under the weather, the last thing you need is a nasty ferocious puzzle to make you feel worse. Phi’s puzzle breezed in and contained lots of … Read more >>
Guardian 23,972, Gordius. + KNOT LIT.
An appropriately knotty puzzle that left me defeated by two clues, offers welcome. A good range of treatments, with several homophonic puns, a nice spoonerism and a punctutation mark as well as the … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 882 by Quixote – long phrase held me up
Top half much harder than bottom half for me, especially because the long phrase in 11 across was new to me. Solving time, 25 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 IN CUB A … Read more >>
Inquisitor #1 – Message from Loda
Just as we start a new year and begin to write about this puzzle every week, the Indie Weekend mag puzzle changes its name! It turns out that this is the second name change. … Read more >>
Guardian 23971/Araucaria – Hello again Sherlock
Solving time 16:10 Conan Doyle must be second only to Shakespeare in having his work used in thematic crosswords. This one contains four 15-letter Sherlock Holmes stories. I didn’t spot the theme right … Read more >>
Independent 6314 by Punk – lots of invention
This is only the second puzzle by Punk in the Indy, packed with cryptic definitions and imaginative clueing. I noticed that Eimi, commenting on this site some time ago, said he was not … Read more >>
Independent 6313/Dac – Mr Wednesday
Across 1 C,ROT,ON – I’d not heard of this before and “heralds” had me puzzled for a while but once I’d got C?O?O? the wordplay became more obvious. 9 (LIVE)*,ED – cleverly worded. … Read more >>