Independent

Independent 8,846 / Phi

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As expected, today saw my monthly tussle with Phi. I found this one quite tough, not least, I feel, because of the high frequency of 4-letter entries. I solved clues steadily but didn’t … Read more >>

Independent 8,844 by Dac

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What new is there to say about Dac? Every clue tells a little story. I have misgivings about ‘provided’ as an anagram indicator in 4dn, and I suspect that there might be a typo in 12dn, since my suggestion is so simple that I can’t see why Dac didn’t do it that way (although now that I look more closely he may be right all along, the two words necessitating a verb without s; not sure about this — perhaps someone who knows about these things could drop in and tell us); but a small price to pay for a day of Dac.

Definitions underlined.

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Independent 8843 / Hob

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Firstly, many thanks to Gaufrid, who has been standing in for us while we were away. Hob definitely gave us the run-around today. It took us longer than normal to complete the puzzle … Read more >>

Independent 8,839 by Monk

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Rather a difficult Monk today I thought, but as usual very enjoyable. There are one or two loose ends which, thanks to the wisdom of those reading this blog, should be tied up before the end of the day.

And of course there’s the Nina, which I half saw and then forgot, to be reminded by Herb @1, who saw rather more than I did. The bottom row is a clear statement, so I looked at the top and couldn’t understand what was happening. All explained below. Very good. I can’t see why Herb thinks he hasn’t got it, for it clearly refers to the Russian novel.

Definitions underlined.

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