Independent

Independent 1,336 by Poins

Sun October 4, 2015 at 9:52 amSun October 4, 2015 at 12:00 am by PeeDee

A straightforward Sunday puzzle. Thanks Poins.

Independent 9033 by Klingsor (Saturday Prize Puzzle 26 September 2015)

Fri December 6, 2019 at 7:37 amSat October 3, 2015 at 12:01 am by mc_rapper67

A challenging cryptic workout from Klingsor, worthy of a Saturday prize slot, IMHO (if people say that any more?!) I couldn’t see any fancy frills – Nina, theme, etc. – but there was … Read more >>

Independent 9,038 / Phi

Fri December 13, 2019 at 9:04 amFri October 2, 2015 at 2:50 pm by RatkojaRiku

My apologies for the late posting, owing to a rather unusual Friday for me. Reassuringly, there’s nothing unusual about crossing cruciverbal swords with Phi on a Friday. I found that this was a … Read more >>

Independent 9037 / Rorschach

Thu October 1, 2015 at 8:18 amThu October 1, 2015 at 7:30 am by duncanshiell

Rorschach is a setter who appears in the Independent less frequently than many others. Rorschach’s puzzles tend to generate quite a lot of comment. There was a lot going on … Read more >>

Independent 9,036 by Quixote

Thu October 1, 2015 at 5:49 pmWed September 30, 2015 at 9:51 am by John

As one always gets from Quixote, an utterly satisfactory, fairly easy but finally tricky, challenge. I went steadily and smoothly through this and then took a long time to finish it off with HABILIMENT, VICE and STELAE my last ones in.

Definitions are underlined.

Independent 9035 / Scorpion

Tue September 29, 2015 at 4:54 pmTue September 29, 2015 at 7:17 am by Bertandjoyce

Thanks Scorpion for a good Tuesday workout. We needed a search for our last one in – 23d and then kicked ourselves. Had we realised earlier that it was a pangram we … Read more >>

Independent 9034 by Morph

Fri December 20, 2019 at 8:04 amMon September 28, 2015 at 9:00 am by NealH

() = abbreviation e.g. a(mpere) hom = homophone [] = letters removed I found the parsing of a few of these a bit of a struggle, but on reflection they are mostly reasonable … Read more >>

Independent on Sunday 1,335 by Kairos

Sun September 27, 2015 at 1:00 am by Simon Harding

Another good Sunday workout from Kairos, if perhaps a shade gentler than last time. No Ninas (ninae?) that I can spot this time around, just a good variety of clues. Last one in … Read more >>

Independent Saturday Prize Puzzle 9027 / Donk (19th Sept 2015)

Tue September 29, 2015 at 5:46 pmSat September 26, 2015 at 12:02 am by Bertandjoyce

When we saw that it was a Donk Prize Puzzle this week, we knew we were in for a treat – and we weren’t disappointed. There were some very straightforward clues to get … Read more >>

Independent 9032 / Tyrus

Fri September 25, 2015 at 7:30 am by duncanshiell

Tyrus has given us an interesting and quite challenging puzzle. It looks like the puzzle is celebrating the WEDDING (19 across) of ANTONIO [unchecked letters in top row] and ELEANOR [unchecked … Read more >>

Independent 9,031 by Monk

Thu September 24, 2015 at 9:47 am by John

As usual an expectedly difficult but good crossword from Monk. Most of the answers seemed fairly obvious after the event; it was just that they were so hard to see in the first place. Perhaps this is because of the high proportion of the definitions that are single words, making it hard to isolate them.

One can criticise the grid for a number of reasons, although it is a standard one that is often used by setters: it doesn’t allow for much of a range of answer-lengths (they are all 5, 6, 7 or 8 letters); four of the answers have less than 50% checking, something that I know doesn’t bother everyone but I don’t like it; and very quickly you end up doing a number of separate little puzzles.