Independent on Sunday 1,714 by Raich

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Hello and Happy New Year to you all.  I hope it proves to be a peaceful, healthy and fulfilling one.

We ring in the new year at the Independent with Raich … but which year?  For several of the across clues, we are in 1963.

I enjoyed solving the puzzle and discovering the theme, my highlight being “King’s Speech”.  Thanks Raich!

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Guardian Genius 234

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This is Jack’s fourth Genius puzzle and the 2nd that we have had the pleasure of blogging. We are more familiar with his Indy persona as Serpent and we always enjoy his puzzles – so this should be good!

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Azed 2636

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It’s the Azed Christmas special this week.       There was quite a lengthy preamble explaining what solvers were asked to do and stating that some entries would not be found in … Read more >>

Guardian 28,954 – Pasquale

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A typically well-crafted puzzle from Pasquale, with a couple of nice “anagram &lit” clues. Thanks to Pasquale, and also to all readers and commenters: see you in 2023.   Across 1 PRACTICE It … Read more >>

Enigmatic Variations No.1570 – Scratching the Surface by Cranberry

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“Clues are listed in conventional order. All bars touching the perimeter (SCRATCHING THE SURFACE, say) are provided. Locations of further bars, displaying 180° symmetry, are to be deduced (but need not be entered). Ten clues contain single extra words. For each of these, one or two letters (not aways consecutive), as indicated by the extra word, must be removed from the defined answer before jumbling the remainder to make the thematic grid entry. All other clues lead to the answer plus one extra letter. In order, these spell out the theme. Enumerations refer to unmodified answers.”

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