Independent

A second Nestor in a row for me, in the 5-weekly blogging cycle, and another pleasant solve with some interesting surface readings… My eye drifted down to the bottom of the grid and … Read more >>

It’s Friday today, so it’s almost guaranteed to be a Phi-day! I made pretty steady progress through this one, struggling with 17 and 18 in the SE quadrant and 7, 8 and 11 … Read more >>

Tyrus has given us an entertaining crossword and one that provides the usual Thursday challenge       There was a bit of geographical bent to clues and entries today with INDIANA (15 … Read more >>

We found this an enjoyable thematic puzzle and have to congratulate Hieroglyph on managing to get six thematic entries (which occupied twelve of the 29 answers) into the grid without having to resort … Read more >>

*=anagram [] = removed e.g. char[m]=char ()=abbreviation e.g. A(mpere)=a Hom. = homophone This was a puzzle in the style of Punk and other compilers who like to get a bit of humour and … Read more >>

A very enjoyable Sunday puzzle from Poins once again, with plenty to think about and work through. Surface readings are remarkably smooth, resulting in some very well-hidden definitions. I faltered a bit in … Read more >>

Wow!! Where to start? Nimrod threw everything at us in this puzzle – thematic entries, linked clues, some rather tenuous synonyms and some original and inventive wordplay. It was an extraordinary choice for … Read more >>

I thought this was a fairly challenging puzzle from Phi today.       When I say challenging, I am particularly referring to the parsing where I am unsure of a couple – OPAL … Read more >>

As is always the case with Donk a wonderfully imaginative crossword. One often struggles to understand how a clue works (in some cases here I’m afraid without complete resolution) and then says “My goodness, … Read more >>

So, it’s the Don filling Dac’s last Wednesday of the month slot this time. We found this trickier than the average Quixote, with several head-scratching moments, particularly over the parsing of 1d. However, … Read more >>

It is Tuesday today, the slot being occupied by Monk this week. It is a long time since it has fallen to me to blog a puzzle by Monk. I made steady, rather … Read more >>

Flipping heck, I only put my hand up to blog the Monday Indy on the grounds that it was ‘easy’. Easy this wasn’t.  I got really stuck on two or three occasions, and … Read more >>

I think the kindest thing I can say about this puzzle is that it was not my favourite ever IoS crossword.  But much more importantly, what did you think?  And can someone explain … Read more >>

This Saturday’s puzzle seemed very difficult at first, though I kept coming back and nibbling away at it and finally managed to finish it unaided by Wednesday or Thursday. Well, I say unaided, … Read more >>