Independent

Poins is a regular in the IoS slot, and as usual this was a generally pleasing and not too fiendish puzzle; but I do have a few niggles and am interested to hear … Read more >>

Sorry for the late appearance of this post but the scheduled blogger hasn’t turned up. In the interest of minimising further delay, I have kept my comments to a minimum. An enjoyable puzzle … Read more >>

There are two ways in which Phi has departed from the norm today: when I first looked at the grid and saw the long across one to begin with and the little bit … Read more >>

We are celebrating our first anniversary of blogging on fifteensquared this week and it’s Thursday so we expected a somewhat difficult solve, especially when we saw that it was Tyrus who has the … Read more >>

It is Wednesday today and not the last of the month, so it has to be Dac, and indeed it is! I found this towards the tougher end of the Dac spectrum, and … Read more >>

Radian is a regular setter in the Independent (and also the Guardian and Financial Times under different pseudonyms. I note he is in the Guardian today as Crucible).  Radian is keen on themes … Read more >>

After some tough puzzles last week, things were back to normal with a straightforward Quixote. Across 1. Beauty treatment? Female having a cold one gets a line reduced (6) Facial F(emale) = a … Read more >>

An enjoyable puzzle from Hypnos, just nice for a relaxing Sunday.  Thank you to Hypnos.  Definitions are underlined in the clues.  [[The pictures at the bottom have unidentified links with the puzzzle.]] Across 1 … Read more >>

So it’s a snowy day in January and for those with some time to kill a Saturday puzzle from the enigmatic Bannsider. Quite a work-out it was too. Some wonderfully inventive devices, as … Read more >>

We always look forward to our blog on a Friday. Phi’s puzzles are always a delight to solve with their smooth surface reading and then often something to search for, even when the … Read more >>

I know that when my blog falls on a Thursday there is a good chance that I will cross swords with Nestor, a challenge that I relish. This one, however, almost proved beyond … Read more >>

This is Crosophile’s first weekday outing of the year in the Independent series.  We got our money’s-worth today with 32 clues.  My experience of blogging the Independent is that 32 clues is the … Read more >>

Yes I was right yesterday when I posted and said that I suspected the Raich crossword was easier than whatever I was going to be blogging today,  but although this was on the tricky side all … Read more >>

Always a pleasure to get a Raich to blog, and I enjoyed battling with this one.  A tough solve for a Monday, though, I found.   Not sure whether the setter was deliberately … Read more >>

So, a new setter (I think!). Not sure if Kairos goes by another name elsewhere, but either way, this was a cracking Indy debut. I got a couple of quick anagrams here and … Read more >>