Guardian 24,729 / Quantum

Quantum’s posthumous puzzles continue to appear, more than a year after his death. I found this one mostly pretty easy going, though I was slightly held up at the end with the two … Read more >>

Guardian 24,714/Rufus

Very straightforward fare from Rufus today, with the usual smattering of cryptic definitions, but also quite a few anagrams to get things going. My knowledge of classical mythology was stretched by 12ac. Key: … Read more >>

Guardian 24,710/Paul

A great one from Paul with a theme of drinks, mostly but not all alcoholic. Nothing too difficult in retrospect, but some of the double definitions took a while to work out until … Read more >>

Guardian 24,705/Pasquale

Seeing Pasquale’s name is a guarantee of soundly-constructed and witty clues, and this was no exception. Although there were a few slight obscurities it yielded eventually, with the NW corner being the most … Read more >>

Guardian 24,700 / Arachne

I found this mostly quite easy (especially in comparison to Arachne’s recent Monday puzzle), though with a few slight obscurities that I needed to check. Several very nice clues where the cryptic structure … Read more >>

Azed 1927 – Spoonerisms

I knew this special was coming because, unusually, Azed told us about it in the monthly Slip from the previous competition. It’s a format that he invented, and it crops up from time … Read more >>

Guardian 24,692/Brendan

I was lucky enough to blog Brendan’s “note” puzzle a couple of weeks ago, and he produced an amazing puzzle yesterday in the Independent (as Virgilius); here he is again with a Pope-themed … Read more >>

Guardian 24,684/Arachne

A non-Rufus Monday with a puzzle from Arachne that I found quite hard going, with some very involved wordplay. There are a couple of clues that I still don’t understand, but I’m sure … Read more >>

Guardian 24,668/Paul

A very enjoyable puzzle from Paul, with (I think) nothing that could be regarded as obscure. (By the way, Hugh Stephenson’s latest newsletter discusses what counts as general knowledge – see the Guardian … Read more >>

Azed 1921 – Eightsome Reels

The scheduled blogger is unavailable, so I’m acting as sub with this rather brief effort. The “Eightsome Reels” idea was invented by Azed and pops up from time to time. Peter has again … Read more >>