Scorpion is never all that easy, but this wasn’t too bad. There were still several clues that detained me, but apart from one or two minor quibbles, everything seems to be fair.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
John
Independent 9,275 by Knut
There are two clues here that are as good as any you ever see.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
AZED 2,299
As always Azed provides a masterclass in clueing: not always the most riveting surfaces or constructions, but everything utterly sound.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent 9,270 by Monk
As usual a good crossword from Monk today. His mistake (I assume, using the authority of Google) in 18ac is perhaps a slight blemish but otherwise there is the usual range of nice clues, some of them setting me back for longer than I would like. But we can’t all be speed solvers, can we.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent 9,265 by Phi
A Phi crossword of medium difficulty, I found, although it all seems perfectly straighforward now. The mark of a good setter, they say.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent 9,256 by Lohengrin
Most of this Lohengrin crossword is fine; indeed I suspect more than most of it is fine, but I’m bewildered by one or two of the clues, as I make clear I hope in the blog. There were some imaginative anagram and inclusion indicators — nothing wrong so far as I can see, simply unusual.
Independent 9,251 by Quixote
For some time this week I have been struggling to produce anything like a half-decent clue in a certain clue-setting competition. Yet Quixote, who sets several crosswords weekly, produces smooth and efficient clues that certainly look as if they are written easily. There is seldom any strain or ‘well, I’m not sure I’d have done that …’ at any point.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent 9,246 by Morph
Morph has given us his usual very sound and pleasant crossword. It was always my impression that Morph’s clues were on the wordy side, but I counted them (yes I really did, I have to admit) and the average word-length of each clue is only 7, which compares quite favourably with Dean Mayer’s last Sunday Times puzzle of 6.8. I had always thought that Dean’s clues were particularly pithy, but this one was not all that far behind. Anyway, perhaps it’s a bit silly to focus on length: quality is what it’s about, and there was plenty of quality here.
Independent 9,241 by Phi
A nicely-accessible Phi today. I had no major problems with it.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
AZED 2,293
Nothing really to say. The usual excellent display of sound clue-setting from Azed. I can’t understand what is given in the paper and on the site as 33ac but is really 35ac, but no doubt someone will explain.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent 9,232 by Hob
A pleasant and accessible crossword from Hob. Apart from one or two little things that I don’t quite understand, all seems to be fairly straightforward.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.
Independent 9,227 by Quixote
The usual very satisfactory crossword from Quixote, despite my misgivings about 22dn. Just as Phi does a crossword for the BBC Music Magazine and so his clues often have musical references, so Quixote is the crossword editor of The Church Times and he tends to use ecclesiastical ideas more often than the average. And it wouldn’t be a Quixote without at least one rare word, possibly two: here they are at 1dn and 20dn.
Independent 9,222 by Klingsor
The love affair with Klingsor continues. He must be wondering if there are any other bloggers. But as I have said before from my point of view this is fine. As always he has given us a nice sound crossword with consistently good clues.
Independent 9,208 by Hieroglyph
This was kind. As Richard Osman says on Pointless, it fell into my lap and I had no difficulty with any of the across clues, and I much enjoyed this gentle but pleasant puzzle from Hieroglyph. When I saw that they all referred to 1D it was clear that solving that clue was going to be important. Fortunately it was easily solvable and everything went in easily thereafter, far more so than it did yesterday in what then seemed to me a rather tricky offering. And there I was, thinking that Tuesdays were more difficult than Mondays.
My apologies for the lack of links: if I’d been really keen I’d have linked to something by each of the 1Ds, but I have recently moved to Firefox and haven’t yet become comfortable with the moving between tabs — previous sites I’ve visited are sometimes up there at the top, sometimes not, and I’m terrified that if I move away I’ll never get back. Actually there is an apology from Firefox up there in a tab at the top telling me that they are having trouble recovering my windows and tabs.
All the definitions in the down clues are underlined. There wouldn’t have been much point in giving the definitions for the acrosses because they are all 1Ds.
Independent 9,203 by Hob
A nice crossword from Hob today (what’s happening? no Dac: I wonder why), although I didn’t quite finish it, 24ac and 4dn defeating me. Oh well, I said, it’ll be all right when I do the blog since the answer will appear. It did, and it also showed me that I’d got 19dn wrong — in my opinion perfectly acceptably.
Definitions underlined and in maroon.