Independent

An excellent and thoroughly enjoyable themed puzzle from Radian, with some crafty misdirection in the use of the word ‘coinage’ and some thematic references in the wordplay to several clues even when they … Read more >>

It’s Friday today so one is not surprised to find an example of Phi’s work to grapple with over breakfast. This was a puzzle of two halves for me in that I filled … Read more >>

Klingsor appears in The Independent every 5 to 6 weeks at the moment.  Based on comments on this site and others, I assume his name is derived from the magician in Richard Wagner’s … Read more >>

Rather harder than the usual Dac I thought, with one or two words that were less than familiar. But, as always, the sort of thing he serves up week after week, with never … Read more >>

A new compiler or someone in disguise? So many of the clues were related that it was difficult to know where to start. For the first five minutes – nothing! It wasn’t until … Read more >>

Very good puzzle from Quixote.     Very good surface readings, all fair.     Straightforward wordplay for less familiar words.    On another xword blogging  site, one of the bloggers lists the (classical) music listened to while … Read more >>

It’s been a little while since I’ve drawn a Sunday Crosophile, and this one seemed to be in keeping with those I’ve encountered before: generally medium difficulty with a few curveballs thrown in … Read more >>

Monk’s puzzles are always challenging and inventive, and this was no exception. I honestly want to be able to enjoy them, as he seems like an awfully nice chap, but for me this … Read more >>

This was a puzzle that made me think I would struggle.       The theme is not one of my strong points, but it was probably the most obscure example that I … Read more >>

I didn’t enjoy this. The two long phrases were hardly known to me, certainly one of them at any rate, and I couldn’t find either of them in Chambers. Which isn’t to say that … Read more >>

Excellent surface readings as usual in this enjoyable puzzle from Dac. As avid filmgoers, we thought 15d read extremely well (even though we are not fans of the Rocky films!) as there really … Read more >>

You can never be sure whose puzzle you’ll get as the Tuesday blogger, and I knew I was in for a challenge, and a lot of fun, when I saw it was Anax … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism An excellent but very tough Leveson themed puzzle. I found the top half of the puzzle a lot easier than the bottom half. There … Read more >>

My sense is that the Independent on Sunday puzzle is one that’s pitched at a reasonably accessible level so that ‘lesser mortals’ (and I have deliberately used the inverted commas) can have a … Read more >>

Nimrod has been lurking around the restricted section of the etymological library again and half-inched the special dictionary of obscure words. I had only very few answers after the first pass of the … Read more >>