Guardian 26420 – Puck

It’s been a while since we saw Puck on a weekday, though he has done a couple of prize puzzles since. This was a welcome return, with a fairly tricky puzzle that kept … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1,288

After struggling so much with 1,287, this one was quite a relief. A rare unaided, single session finish, but one that admittedly required writing in quite a few answers on little more than … Read more >>

Beelzebub 1,287

I’m playing catchup again, almost like some sort of scandalously irresponsible blogger. In my defence, this week’s Beelzebub was blooming hard, and I’d actually finished 1,288 before this one was complete. I’m not … Read more >>

Azed 2214 – Jigsaw

Azed gives us a jigsaw about every two years, and by the luck of the draw I also blogged the last one. As I said then, my first step with these is to … Read more >>

Independent 8,763 by Phi

The usual pleasant crossword from Phi, as always I find a bit slow to begin with but eventually all quite smooth. There seem to be lots of anagrams and part-anagrams here, which make it easier for the solver, and some of them are very obviously anagrams (as in 26ac).

The two words 3dn and 14dn are a sort of mini-Nina, having a similarity of shape to the things they signify, but no doubt there is more …

Definitions underlined.

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