Independent

It’s been over six months since we last blogged a Monk puzzle – we were looking forward to this. We found this puzzle slightly less challenging than we had expected, but none the … Read more >>

My apologies for the late posting. I am on the Belgian coast this week and internet access has been sporadic to say the least. Bluth, one of the latest additions to the Indy … Read more >>

Wire provides the challenge today       There were a lot of secret agent references in the clues and entries with all of the following words or names included somewhere in the … Read more >>

Did you know that (TEES AND PIERRE)* is EARNED RESPITE? For those of you who are wishing you had earned respite from the combo, I am sorry to disappoint.  It’s nothing untoward – … Read more >>

A pleasing puzzle in the usual IoS style, where I was troubled only by one or two remote synonyms.       Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition cad clue as definition … Read more >>

We now have Phi-day on a Saturday. All very confusing this week but as we also blogged the Hob yesterday we realised that something different was happening this week. We spotted PHILIP in … Read more >>

When Hob popped up on a Phiday, we thought there must be something special happening today…. As we worked through the grid, we noticed the nina in the left and right borders, and, … Read more >>

A challenging and unusual puzzle awaited us this Thursday morning, set by Serpent. I think that I have managed to solve the puzzle correctly, although I found teasing out the wordplay in this … Read more >>

Wednesday and Eccles is a pairing to look forward to.       As ever, there were smooth surfaces in many clues, but the ones I liked particularly were those for POINT-TO-POINT, CRISIS … Read more >>

Maize is always very good and this was no exception, although perhaps it was gentler than usual. It was still not all that easy though, and there were plenty of nice clues. Definitions … Read more >>

Tees on a Monday for the third time in a row. Enjoyable as always, and mostly straightforward, though a few references may be unfamiliar to non-Brits. Tees always provides some amusing surfaces; 12/11 … Read more >>

Thanks to Hoskins for an enjoyable solve. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Music producer Parisian thugs attacked (7,6) SPANISH GUITAR : Anagram of(… attacked) PARISIAN THUGS. 8 Primate touring southern … Read more >>

The puzzle can be found here.   Hello and Happy Yorkshire Day!  I hope you are well.  In my last Indy blog I said the crossword kept me occupied for rather longer than … Read more >>

It is Phi-day once again, bringing this latest set of mid-week puzzles to an end. I found this to be an enjoyable, medium-difficulty puzzle through which I made fairly swift progress. I would … Read more >>

Morph provides today’s challenge       Morph is a useful name for a setter, as it can be used as an anagram indicator as well as a reference to the setter as … Read more >>