Independent

Independent 9740 / Maize

Mon January 1, 2018 at 8:00 am by Gaufrid

It is not often that you get clue numbers over 40 in a 15×15 blocked grid so something must be going on. It certainly is! Simply a-Maize-ing, the Indy brings in the New … Read more >>

Independent on Sunday 1453/Morph

Sun December 31, 2017 at 7:37 amSun December 31, 2017 at 12:05 am by Pierre

So farewell, then, 2017 … as E J Thribb would say. And on the last day of the year, Morph is saying farewell to a number of people who died … Read more >>

Independent 9739 / Anglio

Sat December 30, 2017 at 3:17 pmSat December 30, 2017 at 2:27 pm by Gaufrid

Another no-show by the scheduled blogger so another simple analysis of the clues, with no commentary due to time constraints. Sorry! . Across 8 Foul shot’s over line, tennis officials maintained – one … Read more >>

Independent 9738 / Phi

Fri December 29, 2017 at 8:43 amFri December 29, 2017 at 8:08 am by Bertandjoyce

Phi’s back to Phiday this week! At first sight, we couldn’t find a theme or nina, but then Joyce noticed that Phi’s challenge in this puzzle was to mirror … Read more >>

Independent 9,737 / Knut

Thu December 28, 2017 at 12:29 pm by RatkojaRiku

Knut has provided today’s lexical challenge in which there is nothing Christmassy but which is nonetheless a real treat. It was only when I had almost finished this puzzle that I realised that … Read more >>

Independent 9736 / Dac

Wed December 27, 2017 at 7:30 am by duncanshiell

Dac takes us away from Christmas-themed crosswords and provides us with his usual smooth surfaces leading to everyday words as entries. You know where you stand with Dac. Rarely is … Read more >>

Independent 9,735 by Hoskins

Tue December 26, 2017 at 10:55 am by John

Sorry about the lateness of this blog. But it is Christmas, after all.

Hoskins referred to this puzzle the other day, suggesting that it wasn’t going to be easy; I was very concerned, remembering how difficult he can be: I am one of the slower solvers around but I hardly ever fail to solve crosswords eventually, although the time taken can be embarrassing. However, shortly after Hoskins started to set for the Sunday Times he inflicted on us what was the hardest crossword I have ever done and I had to admit defeat. (But it was football-themed, so that’s my excuse.)

But this one was not in the same league, ho-ho. It was a very pleasant crossword, easily accessible, and with a whole lot of excellent clues. Over the years there must have been a vast number of Christmas-themed crosswords, but without my looking back at them all, I’d say confidently that many of these clues used ideas that have never been used before.

Definitions underlined in maroon; anagram indicators in italics.

Independent on Sunday 1452 Phi

Sun December 24, 2017 at 10:43 amSun December 24, 2017 at 12:01 am by scchua

There must be good reason for Phi to appear on a Sunday, and in particular, this Christmas Eve (see below). Thanks to Phi. Definitions are underlined in the clues. The theme is Charles … Read more >>

Independent 9734 by Tees (Sat 23-Dec 2017)

Sat December 23, 2017 at 8:00 am by beermagnet

The Independent doing their very best to ignore Christmas. Quite right I look forward to puzzles from Tees – he always sets puzzles on my kind of wavelength. I particularly enjoyed this choice … Read more >>

Independent 9,733 / Hypnos

Wed September 12, 2018 at 9:37 amFri December 22, 2017 at 11:01 am by RatkojaRiku

Hypnos is occupying this week’s Friday slot, where we are used to finding Phi. As far as I can remember, this is my first outing with Hypnos as a blogger. In terms of … Read more >>

Independent 9732 / Filbert

Thu December 21, 2017 at 7:30 am by duncanshiell

Filbert gave me quite a challenge today. Did others find this easier than me? I found this quite hard with everything becoming clear only when I sussed out all the … Read more >>

Independent 9,731 by Hoskins

Wed December 20, 2017 at 10:21 am by John

I was under the impression that Hoskins always gets me as the blogger, but a Search on fifteensquared shows that this is not the case at all: he is a remarkably prolific setter and seems to have been blogged by an assortment of people. In any case, it is always a pleasure to be faced with one of his, because all the clues are sound, some are very good, and one is never left with a feeling that something is missing. My only criticism is of the slight overuse of exclams (as in 28ac and 2dn) but this is really just a matter of taste; however, I would suggest that he looks at what Ximenes had to say on the subject in his book, although no doubt he already knows and I’m missing something.

Definitions underlined, in maroon. I’ve introduced something someone now does in blogging The Times: putting anagram indicators in bold italic. Actually I haven’t, because the font is such that it appears rather large, so I’ve omitted the bold bit.