Thanks to Vulcan for a Monday quickie.
Guardian 29,642 – Vlad
Phew, that was hard. Thanks to Vlad for the impalement. Across 1 NOT MY CUP OF TEA Face up to Tony in desperation keeping money – I don’t like it (3,2,3,2,3)M in … Read more >>
Andrew
Guardian 29,635 – Brummie
Brummie has been very productive of late – this is his eighth puzzle this year. I found this mostly quite straightforward, though I didn’t help myself by carelessly misspelling 14ac. Thanks to Brummie. … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 260 – Karla
“Each across clue contains a word that must be removed before solving. The first and last letters from these words, in clue order, explain changes required, to varying degrees of effect, in all … Read more >>
Guardian 29,628 – Paul
A fun puzzle with the multi-light answers and cross-references that we’ve come to expect. Thanks to Paul. A number of clues feature whimsical descriptions of animals in their wordplay. We have MOOER (cow), … Read more >>
Guardian 29,621 – Vlad
A tricky puzzle, as one would expect from this setter, but one where much of the parsing turns out to be “obvious” when you see it, which is of course a sign of … Read more >>
Azed 2746
I found this mostly not to hard on the Azed scale, though a few clues held me up at the end, especially the crossing pair 30a and 22d. I have a couple of … Read more >>
Guardian 29,612 – Paul
I didn’t seem to be on the right wavelength at all this morning so found this quite hard, though in retrospect almost everything seems reasonably straightforward, with the exception of one clue that … Read more >>
Guardian 29,605 – Picaroon
Good to see another (final?) puzzle from the pirate before he goes into setting Purdah in his new job at the Telegraph. A smooth and witty set of clues, as we’ve come to … Read more >>
Guardian 29,598 – Brummie
A straightforward puzzle with no hidden theme that I can see, though you never know. Thanks to Brummie. Across 1 CHARGER It can energise a mobile horse (7)Double definition 5 FREIGHT Father … Read more >>
Guardian 29,591 – Qaos
Tuesday fun from Qaos, including one of his trademark numerical clues (and a couple of other mathematical references). Thanks to Qaos. .. and of course a theme: I was tipped off by seeing … Read more >>
Guardian 29,584 – Brendan
A welcome return by Brendan, with an unusual grid in which all the answers the two long central ones have eight letters. Thanks to Brendan. The long answers are nicely self-descriptive, and (as … Read more >>
Azed 2740 – ‘Christmas Playfair’
Several Azed bloggers, myself included, have commented that the appearance of a Playfair puzzle is a scary prospect, as it involved both cold-solving the italicised clues, and deducing the codeword from the answers and the crossing letters.
Guardian 29,582 – Yank
A few American terms and references in this one, as befits the setter’s pseudonym, but nothing too outrageous. I enjoyed this, though there’s one parsing I’m not sure of. Thanks to Yank. … Read more >>
Azed 2740 – no blog yet
The Azed Christmas puzzle has a stated closing date of 29th December. This is unusual in two ways: first by being a Sunday, and secondly by not giving an extra week, as is … Read more >>