Andrew

A fairly typical Chifonie puzzle, with lots of charades and other straightforward constructions, but none the worse for that. A couple of answers may be unfamiliar to some. but they’re clearly clued. Thanks … Read more >>

I rattled through most of this pretty quickly, helped by a lot of anagrams and some other rather obvious clues. I have a nagging worry that I’m missing a theme here, but I … Read more >>

An entertaining and not-too-difficult puzzle from Picaroon. I spotted the theme almost immediately from 9a and 10a, but it didn’t help greatly, as all of the 13 fish (shown in blue below) have … Read more >>

A very quick solve for me today, with the exception of 4d, which held me up at the end. Fewer cryptic definitions than usual, I think, which helps; the ones we do have … Read more >>

Qaos rounds off an excellent week of Guardian puzzles. I always look for a ghost theme with Qaos: I thought it was going to be food, with POULTRY, BREAD, PUDDING and GARLIC, but … Read more >>

Good-quality stuff from Imogen. In the reverse of my usual pattern I started off quite quickly, with the help 1a and 1d coming early, but had a few problems later on, especially in … Read more >>

I blogged my first ever Philistine about a month ago, and here he is again. And a very fine puzzle too, with more ingenious clueing, including a few examples where the answer is … Read more >>

At the risk of repeating myself, I am still not warming to Otterden’s style. Although there are some nice ideas here, but there are just too many examples where, for me, the cryptic … Read more >>

A pleasant surprise to see Nutmeg’s name today, but this was definitely not your usual “easy” Monday puzzle, with a couple of obscure words and some tricky clueing. So, a slight shock to … Read more >>

Well, that was fun! Another of Tramp’s puzzles where many of the clues are related to a theme, but almost no knowledge of the theme is needed to solve them. The theme of … Read more >>

Although Philistine has been setting in the Guardian since July 2011, I don’t ever seem to have blogged one of his puzzles, at least not for some time. But better late than never, … Read more >>

This looked rather impenetrable at first, but I was lucky to guess the key phrase at 2d etc early on, which gave lots of crossing letters as well as a hint to other … Read more >>