Independent

Most Independent bloggers cycle through Friday, Thursday, Wednesday and Tuesday.  Crosophile seems to be on a monthly cycle on the last Wednesday of the month.  So if there are 4 weeks in the … Read more >>

A pleasant solve from Raich. As always one or two of the clues were very simple, which is no bad thing, but a few were a little tricky. I think I have it all explained but … Read more >>

A rather rude awakening here from Donk in places, I found this rather tricky and can’t explain 17ac. Seems ages since I last wrote a blog here, with Uncle Yap kindly taking over … Read more >>

My second outing with an Alechemi puzzle, but this was just as good as the first. I raced through this one pretty quickly, but that was largely due to the neat clueing which … Read more >>

A year or two ago I seemed to draw an Anax every time it was my turn to blog a Saturday Indy. Like female flatmates, it seemed that our cycles had synchronised. Strangely, … Read more >>

It is Friday today, so we have Phi’s latest puzzle to contend with. This puzzle has something of a musical theme to it and was trickier in terms of its vocabulary for me … Read more >>

Morph puzzles appear in the Independent about once a month and are very welcome.       At one point I thought this might be a pangram, but we seem to be 2 … Read more >>

As happens on many Wednesdays, we have a neat and perfectly-formed object. You wouldn’t think that such excellent surfaces were possible from the simple material used. Across 1 HO AXER 4 ROASTING — … Read more >>

This is the second Hob crossword that we’ve blogged. There was quite a lot to enjoy here but a few of the clues left us a little disappointed after the recent wonderful debut … Read more >>

I found this Quixote one of the more difficult ones. There were plenty of easier starter clues but a number of more obscure words meant the bottom part of the puzzle was quite … Read more >>

I believe Commoner to be a new name to the IoS, and if that’s the case, then welcome! This was very much in the style to which we’ve become accustomed: a good Sunday … Read more >>

This puzzle had a enormous range of difficulty. The short clues somehow stood out when I first glanced at the puzzle, and as they were eminently gettable double-defs, oddly enough the top right … Read more >>

This was another fine puzzle from Phi that ranged over a wide range of general knowledge.       There were quite a few references to, and use of the French language – PIÈCES … Read more >>

Rather late today I’m afraid for various reasons, not the least of which was that this was hard; for me, at any rate, although it all (or nearly all) makes sense now and … Read more >>

As we have come to expect, another neat puzzle from Dac with excellent surfaces and crafty misdirections – a pleasure to solve and blog! We particularly liked 16A for its use of ‘setter’ … Read more >>