Independent 9,376 by Raich

This crossword from Raich is to the usual high standard that we have come to expect from him. All the clues seem to me to be neat and uncontroversial with good surfaces, and the theme is something you don’t really need to know in order to solve the crossword, which is as it should be.

Raich always seems to appear on Tuesdays, which I find a little hard to understand. I wouldn’t say this was a doddle, but it was much easier fare than the sort of stuff we often get on a Tuesday, a day which sometimes competes with Thursday for the title of ‘most difficult day’.

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Independent on Sunday 1393 Poins

Not so easy for a Sunday puzzle. Thanks to Poins. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 Get former pupil to exercise right away (6) OBTAIN : OB(abbrev. for “old boy”;a former pupil … Read more >>

Independent 9,371 by Dac

For some reason I found this unusually hard for a Dac, but the trademark qualities are still all there — just as good as ever. Perhaps it was because there seemed to be slightly fewer clues than normal involving anagrams. I don’t know.

Definitions underlined.

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Independent 9,366 by Wiglaf

This is Wiglaf’s fifth crossword in the Independent, although the first one that I have blogged. We seem to have plenty of newish names nowadays, although you wouldn’t know that they were newish because their crosswords are pretty good; as you’d expect of course, as they wouldn’t have got past Eimi if they weren’t.

I found this to be a bit hard in places, but quite sound and any failings were my own. Perhaps a bit clunky in places, such as 5dn, but this is made up for by some very nice clues.

Definitions in italics.

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