Guardian 26,135 / Paul

A real crossword-puzzler’s crossword puzzle from Paul today… …celebrating the centenary of (probably) the first published puzzle. I found most of the clueing quite gentle by Paul’s standards, though entertaining as always, but … Read more >>

Azed 2166

As Don Manley pointed out in a comment on Nick’s blog last week, Azed’s sound clueing often means that you can often work out what the answer must be from the wordplay, even … Read more >>

Guardian 26,128 – Picaroon

This was one of those puzzles where I got almost nothing on my first pass through, but then everything suddenly started falling into place quite quickly. Plenty of good-quality clueing, with a clever … Read more >>

Guardian 26,121 – Arachne

A puzzle from the easy end of the Arachnid spectrum, apart from a couple that delayed me at the end, though no less enjoyable for that, being full of the usual spidery wit, … Read more >>

Guardian 26,112 – Tramp

A welcome return by Tramp after a couple of months’ absence. It isn’t giving anything away to say that the clues are teeming with references to the assassination of John F Kennedy exactly … Read more >>

Guardian 26,105 – Chifonie

A typically straightforward and well-crafted puzzle from Chifonie, with his usual generous helping of charades, but also a few rather nice anagrams.               Across 1. COWARD Film … Read more >>

Guardian 26,098 – Qaos

Rather a strange mixture from Qaos today – some very obvious clues (e.g. 1a), but also some more complex constructions (e.g. 18a). There are a couple of places where I think the cryptic … Read more >>

Azed 2160

I found this mostly pretty easy, finishing it (so I thought) without aids in about half an hour, greatly helped by getting the long answers at 1a and 1d early on. Writing up … Read more >>

Guardian 26,091 – Paul

After my embarrassing failure to recognise the signifiance of “missionary” in a clue last week, this time the cheeky 3d leapt straight out at me, so to speak, and gave me a nice … Read more >>

Guardian 26,081 – Brummie

As is often the case with Brummie, this turned out easier than it appeared at first sight. A nice variety of clues, though, with only 1d being a bit of a disappointment   … Read more >>

Guardian 26,075 – Gordius

My second Gordius In two weeks: regular readers may be aware that he is not exactly my favourite setter, so I will just say that this is fairly typical of his style, though … Read more >>

Guardian 26,068 – Paul

The usual good (mostly) clean fun from Paul, though with an unusually large number of double definitions. I can’t explain 14a – as always I’m probably missing something obvious         … Read more >>