Posted by Handel on 18th March 2010
Another enjoyable, well clued puzzle from Quixote. The south-west corner took longest, for no good reason – just couldn’t think of the right words for a while. H was pleased to see ‘demotic’ make an appearance, having only recently learnt the word from another puzzle.
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Posted by John on 18th March 2010
An unusual Thursday appearance for Dac, caused by the jiggling necessary to fit in Virgilius’s St Patrick’s Day crossword on Wednesday, so this must be one of the gentler Thursday offerings; but surely as good as any. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 17th March 2010
A special puzzle on the Irish national day, St Patrick’s Day, by Virgilius who hails from there. Impressive that so much thematic material was packed into clues and answers. Great stuff as always from the master.
Posted in Independent | 16 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 16th March 2010
A pretty tough but enjoyable themed puzzle from a Fifteensquared regular.
Posted in Independent | 23 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 15th March 2010
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
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Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »
Posted by petebiddlecombe on 12th March 2010
This was a fairly easy puzzle for Nimrod, solved in 12 minutes. My first instinct on sight of the grid, with two black corners and big T’s in the middle, was “there must be a theme” – Nimrod was obviously not playing his other game of trying to set a record for the lowest number of answers and/or black squares.
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by John on 12th March 2010
An unusually large number of words that I hadn’t really heard of in the usual nice Phi offering. The pairs of four-letter answers at top R and bottom L suggest something, but I can’t see anything. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 11th March 2010
This was very good indeed.
nmsindy has admitted to weaknesses esp films but is prepared to admit to a strength, football, which was v helpful here. Solving time, 50 mins.
Posted in Independent | 11 Comments »
Posted by Handel on 11th March 2010
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 10th March 2010
A mixed one for me, having raced through all but three clues in mere minutes, to find myself completely stumped on 10, 25 and 28. I’ll blame the fact that today’s post has necessarily been prepared in quite a hasty fashion. As a curious side-note, it seems my blogging days have so far coincided with Independent cryptic puzzle numbers 7,000, 7,100, 7,200 and now 7,300.
Posted in Independent | 9 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 9th March 2010
Seems to have been a while since I blogged a Radian puzzle, so nice of him to pop up.
Posted in Independent | 10 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 8th March 2010
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
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Posted in Independent | 13 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 4th March 2010
I seem to have got off lightly after some of the toughies we’ve had on recent Saturdays, which I’ve really struggled with. This, by stark contrast, didn’t put up much of a fight at all, probably taking less time than a typical Friday Phi to complete. Still, no question over the quality of the clueing, and no danger of a late blog posting!
Posted in Independent | 4 Comments »
Posted by Handel on 4th March 2010
We polished this one off in the Bridge in Topsham, with pints of Branoc and hot pasties. What a wonderful afternoon. Found this easier than the previous puzzle, the vocab in this puzzle was more up our street.
Posted in Independent | 3 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 4th March 2010
An interesting one this, I think – neither too hard nor too easy, though for several the answer came more easily than the explanation.
Posted in Independent | 14 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 3rd March 2010
It’s been a tough week so far in the Indy, but a good one. Dac’s puzzles are generally on the easier side, but never anything less than brilliant. I found the right hand side quite tricky in parts here. There are some great clues as always, 5A being my particular favourite. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by John on 2nd March 2010
Tough: I don’t know what I’d have done without the reveal facility on the Independent website. But I’m the one at fault, for, apart from one or two quibbles, the clues were understandable and good. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 16 Comments »
Posted by NealH on 1st March 2010
*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism
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Posted in Independent | 6 Comments »
Posted by Simon Harris on 26th February 2010
A very enjoyable one here. I had expected to say that I found this a bit easier than usual for a Tees, but then I started to struggle towards the end. Still, here we are, though a couple of my explanations might need a second opinion.
Posted in Independent | 14 Comments »
Posted by duncanshiell on 26th February 2010
As I only blog Independent puzzles once a month, I don’t have a great deal of experience of individual setters. A little research though shows that I have solved Bannsider’s puzzles before as he is a Times Setter and also operates as Aragon in The Listener. I believe he also judges the monthly clue competition in The Times Crossword Club.
Posted in Independent | 12 Comments »
Posted by Ali on 25th February 2010
A nice puzzle from Morph with some great cryptic definitions and humourous touches, as appears to be his wont! I found the NW corner very hard, but overall a very satisfying solve.
Posted in Independent | 8 Comments »
Posted by Handel on 25th February 2010
Two unknown words and one unknown spelling made this a tougher challenge for your faithful correspondents. One clue we haven’t successfully parsed.
Posted in Independent | 7 Comments »
Posted by John on 24th February 2010
Typically mellifluous surfaces. I found one or two of the clues unusually hard for Dac. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Independent | 13 Comments »
Posted by nmsindy on 23rd February 2010
Posted in Independent | 14 Comments »