A slow solve with some tricky parsing. I especially liked 13ac, 27ac, and 1dn – other favourites were 25ac, 31ac, and 21dn. Thanks to Paul.
Guardian 28,079 – Crucible
Good entertainment from Crucible this morning, with one outrageously parochial/dated reference, and one clue I can’t fully parse at 11a. Thanks to Crucible.
Independent 10425 / Serpent
Serpent provides today’s challenge I found the biggest challenge today to be how to parse some of the clues. I am still left with three I can’t parse satisfactorily. These … Read more >>
Financial Times 16,423 by NEO
Neo steps up to the setters’ plate this morning.
Financial Times 16.413 by Gozo
Prize puzzle from the Weekend FT of February 29, 2020 For Leap Day, we get a special puzzle from Gozo. It must have taken him some struggle to fit this together and have … Read more >>
Financial Times 16,422 by IO
A great puzzle! Not hard by Io’s standards, but that certainly doesn’t make a puzzle easy… Thank you Io. There are various references to tea and tea making in here, but I don’t … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 28,078 by Nutmeg
An elegant, but not iverly challenging, puzzle from Nutmeg in today’s Guardian.
Independent 10,424 by Morph
Well I suppose it is Tuesday [don’t even know what day it is, as Rabbit Dave reminds me], so we must expect something difficult [On Wednesday? Not in recent times, although things may … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1636: Visitation by Hedge-sparrow
I seem to recall that Hedge-sparrow’s other Inquisitor puzzle had quite a lot going on. Preamble: The outer cells contain a phrase (nine words) from a speech made by the person whose … Read more >>
Independent 10,423 by Radian
Amazingly it’s almost two years since we last blogged a Radian puzzle, so we really looked forward to an interesting challenge today. There certainly were some challenging clues, but also some straightforward ones … Read more >>
Financial Times 16421 Moo
Thanks Moo for the (debut?) puzzle. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Woman in Congress almost completely mad (6) BONKER : “bonkers”(completely mad/insane) minus its last letter(almost …). Defn: Woman (or … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 28,077 by Brummie
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28077. A quick solve here, with what seemed more envelopes than I could shake a stick at, and basic clue types throughout. I do not have the … Read more >>
Guardian Quiptic 1,060/Pan
Pan always provides ‘beginners and those in a hurry’ with a well-constructed and entertaining Quiptic. The NW corner took a bit of teasing out, but the whole puzzle fell out nicely in the … Read more >>
Guardian 28,076 / Vulcan
Vulcan settles into the Monday slot again. We have the usual Monday medley of anagrams and double and cryptic [some less so than others] definitions. I quite liked 9 and 24 across and … Read more >>
Independent 10,422 by Tees
Oh, good, another Tees puzzle in my blog schedule. Always an enjoyable challenge. Some of these took a bit of working out: there are some slightly obscure definitions, such as 18d and the … Read more >>