Bertandjoyce

This is our first blog of a Serpent puzzle. Although he has been around setting daily cryptics for the Independent for a while, we remember him more for the excellent Inquisitor puzzles that … Read more >>

Crosophile stands in for Dac this week.       It was only when we were compiling the blog that we realised that there is a theme here – given away (perhaps unnecessarily?) … Read more >>

A good challenge from Tees today, although there were one or two clues that we struggled with and some new words to check out. We had come across the Gods in 10ac before … Read more >>

It’s Friday and as expected we have a Phi to solve and blog – no complaints here.   Phi has apparently decided to set himself challenges other than the inclusion of  themes or … Read more >>

A fairly straightforward puzzle from Vigo today. Nothing too taxing, but none the worse for that.   All the clues were fair, with no particularly unusual words, making for a very enjoyable solve. … Read more >>

Kairos steps in for Dac this week – and we found this quite difficult to get to grips with.   Having written up the blog we are now wondering why? Was it the … Read more >>

Well, what can we say? We really struggled to get started and wondered whether we would have to ‘phone a friend’ or admit defeat. In the end it was definitely one of those puzzles … Read more >>

It took us a little while to get into Tees’ offering today, but in preparing the blog, we’re not quite sure why. Apart from a couple of references that we had to check … Read more >>

A fairly straightforward solve from Phi this week.     For once the theme was so obvious, we couldn’t help but think that maybe there were more thematic entries than the obvious ones … Read more >>

We couldn’t remember blogging a Vigo puzzle before but, after checking, we found that we had – back in 2015. Given our comments about 5d and 9ac, we are having concerns about memory … Read more >>

Alchemi stands in for Dac this week.       We found this slightly trickier than the average Wednesday fare. We were somewhat held up by the entry at 17d, which does not … Read more >>

This was a challenging Thursday work-out from Anglio.   There are some ingenious definitions (e.g. 13ac, 8d) crafty wordplay, and several clever cryptic definitions. Great for stirring up the grey matter while we’re … Read more >>

Wow – this was a toughie from Hob – but that is what we have come to expect. We might have found it a little easier if we had been familiar with the … Read more >>

It’s the end of the week and as expected, we have a Phi to solve.   For a change, we actually spotted the ‘theme’, although not until we had completed it. As usual, … Read more >>