Azed 2274
A gentle start to the Azed year: I don’t time myself, but I think I finished this (apart from checking a couple of stragglers in Chambers) in less than half an hour. As … Read more >>
Andrew
Guardian 26,771 – Rufus
If Rufus has made any New Year’s resolutions, then “use fewer cryptic definitions” clearly isn’t one of them. Seven here (and four doubles), several of which I find pretty weak. Still, I know … Read more >>
Guardian 26,769 – Philistine
After yesterday’s duffing-up by Enigmatist and friends, it was a bit of a relief to get this much gentler, but still enjoyable, offering from Philistine as the first puzzle of 2016. Thanks to … Read more >>
Guardian 26,763 – Paul
Lots of Christmassy references in the clues from Paul today, and not too hard a puzzle for those who have a lot of other things to do. Thanks to Paul, and Merry Christmas … Read more >>
Guardian 26,756 – Picaroon
A typically high-quality puzzle from Picaroon today, with no theme (as far as I can see at this time in the morning) though a lot of reversals in the clues. Thanks to Picaroon … Read more >>
Guardian 26,749 – Brummie
An enjoyable puzzle from Brummie with some helpful anagrams to get things going. Thanks to the setter. Getting 12a and 22a early on led me to the theme of Andy Warhol and his … Read more >>
Guardian 26,742 – Rufus
A very quick solve for me, helped by the generous number of anagrams, and a corresponding reduction in the usual cryptic and double defnitions. Tbanks to Rufus. … Read more >>
Azed 2268
Mostly fairly easy on the Azed scale, though I struggled with the intersecting 4-letter words at 27d and 32a, which had rather unhelpful checked letters (?OA? and ?A?E), and quite tricky clues. Thanks … Read more >>
Guardian 26,740 – Shed
An interesting puzzle from Shed – mostly quite straightforward (with a large number of reversals) , but with a couple of unfamiliar words, and I took longer than I should have in the … Read more >>
Guardian 26,733 – Chifonie
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 >>
Guardian 26,726 – Brummie
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 >>
Guardian 26,719 – Picaroon
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 >>
Guardian 26,712 – Rufus
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 >>
Guardian 26,710 – Qaos
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 >>
Azed 2262 – oops!
By the “breakfast test” this counted as quite easy on the Azed spectrum, even though in retrospect it seems to have quite a high proportion of unfamiliar words. Unusually, there are only 34 … Read more >>