Inquisitor 1229: WINO by Nutmeg
This puzzle had a fairly long preamble: "In every clue but one, a letter must be removed from the definition part before solving. In clue order, these spell out the beginning of a … Read more >>
Never knowingly undersolved
This puzzle had a fairly long preamble: "In every clue but one, a letter must be removed from the definition part before solving. In clue order, these spell out the beginning of a … Read more >>
Klingsor appears in The Independent every 5 to 6 weeks at the moment. Based on comments on this site and others, I assume his name is derived from the magician in Richard Wagner’s … Read more >>
This was a puzzle that made me think I would struggle. The theme is not one of my strong points, but it was probably the most obscure example that I … Read more >>
Raich is a regular contributor to puzzles in the Independent, Inquisitor and Listener series. I think also that I have seen him once in the Guardian. His clues are generally clear and not too … Read more >>
This looks like a fairly standard crossword from Crosophile. The clues are not too difficult, the wordplay is not too complex and the vocabulary of the entries comprises words I would expect to … Read more >>
This puzzle had quite a long preamble, as follows: ‘Initially the filled grid will contain seven consecutive empty cells. One letter must be removed from the answers to 20 clues and the residue … Read more >>
Tees has given us a puzzle, mainly populated with well known words, although the main theme did generate one slightly obscure phrase (to me, at least) that was fairly easily deducible from the … Read more >>
It’s often said that you know you are right when you complete the last stage of a Listener puzzle properly. I think the same can be said of the parsing Azed’s clues. If … Read more >>
If it’s Friday it’s usually Phi and so it is today. I found this a bit tougher than some Phis that I have solved recently, but the parsing was very … Read more >>
This was a different puzzle from many Independent daily crosswords. For a start there were 36 clues, significantly more than is usual in a daily blocked crossword. I thought also … Read more >>
The Genius puzzle could be described as one of the blocked crossword world’s entry into the more challenging type of crossword arena championed by the likes of The Inquisitor, Enigmatic Variations and The … Read more >>
This was a good example of a daily puzzle. The entries are everyday words and the clues conjured up plenty of mental images, many involving enjoyable misdirection. I struggled a bit deconstructing the … Read more >>
The preamble for this puzzle appeared mind-bogglingly complex on first read through. It went as follows: What started off as x (between a, b and cde) may have been compromised by a direction … Read more >>
The Independent provides a varied diet of crosswords with an interesting mix of difficulty, types of clues, themes and ninas. On the face of it, today’s offering was a good … Read more >>
The Independent crossword that I blogged last week – the one by Hypnos with the whistleblower theme – generated a good deal of comment and controversy. I feel sure that this one will … Read more >>