Andrew

You wait for ages for a Brummie, and then two come along almost at once – this one and the latest Genius puzzle. This was somehow a bit easier than it appeared to … Read more >>

An entertaining but quite tricky puzzle from Paul, with a lot of long answers spanning two positions in the grid and a fair amount of cross-referencing. The SW corner caused me the most … Read more >>

Yet another posthumous Quantum puzzle. Unfortunately I have to say I wasn’t very impressed with it: there are a couple of rather weak cryptic definitions, and other niggles noted below. Apart from that … Read more >>

It’s one of the occasional non-Rufus Mondays. This was harder than a typical Rufus, but mostly not too difficult. There’s a theme involving characters from the TV series M*A*S*H, who are collected up … Read more >>

A tour-de-force of linked clues and clever wordplay from Brendan that is exceptional even by his high standards. Unfortunately I’ve had to solve and blog this in rather a hurry before catching an … Read more >>

At first I thought Crucible was a new setter, but I see he (?) has appeared a few times, most recently in September this year. Not surprisingly, Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot … Read more >>

I guessed the planetary theme almost immediately, knowing that “planet” means “wanderer”, from the fact that the planets move in the sky relative to the so-called “fixed stars”. It’s not a complete set: … Read more >>

A bit of a Grauniad glitch meant that the online version was late in appearing, but it all seems to be sorted out now. I found this a bit more difficult than some … Read more >>

I had quite a struggle with the spider-woman this morning, with the result that I didn’t have much time for writing up the blog, so apologies if anything isn’t clear. Some nice clues … Read more >>

A very enjoyable puzzle from Orlando, difficult enough to be a challenge but nothing outrageous. There are several nice clues where an anagram is cleverly concealed by the surface reading, Key: dd = … Read more >>

Another easy Rufus, with the usual crop of cryptic definitions, one or two of which I think are a bit lacking. Key: dd = double definition dd = cryptic definition * = anagram … Read more >>

A nice challenge from Araucaria today, with almost entirely Ximenean clueing. I was particularly pleased to be able get the Shakespearian references in 1ac and 9ac without assistance. Key: * = anagram dd … Read more >>