Andrew

It’s hard to find anything new to say about Paul: I can only express my admiration for his ability to come up with high-quaity puzzles with such regularity. This was a typical example, … Read more >>

Crucible gives us a good workout this morning, with a couple of clues I can’t parse to my complete satisfaction. There’s a fairly obvious construction theme in the answers, with MASON, BUILDING, BRICKS … Read more >>

I thought this was relatively easy by Nutmeg’s standards (for cryptics – she can of course do a well-judged Quiptic too), but a bit harder than usual for a Monday. Nice anagrams for … Read more >>

A pinch and a punch for the first of the month, and a relatively gentle puzzle from Pasquale to ease us into February. As usual there are a few answers that may be … Read more >>

In general I found this a little easier than Nutmeg can sometimes be, though with a few tricky moments. However, it is of the usually high quality and full of invention. Thanks to … Read more >>

Quite a tricky offering from Imogen today, with some obscurities in both answers and wordplay. My first breakthrough was the long answer at 26a, but there were still a few hurdles along the … Read more >>

It’ll be interesting to see what sort of pattern of setters we get for “Easy Monday” after Rufus’s retirement. Chifonie last week, and now Pan, who has been more of a Quiptic setter, … Read more >>

As seems to happen regularly, Vlad softened me up with a few easy clues, but left me struggling afterwards. Still, I got there in the end, and it all looks perfectly reasonable in … Read more >>

It’s a pleasure to have one of Screw’s relatively rare appearances for my last blog of the year. Good fun as always, with some slightly tricky parsings, and quite a few well-concealed definitions, … Read more >>

Not too difficult for a Brummie, though there are a couple rather obscure words and a few names that may be unfamiliar, though clearly clued. I can’t explain 6d. As usual with this … Read more >>