Independent

Tees has given us a puzzle, mainly populated with well known words, although the main theme did generate one slightly obscure phrase (to me, at least) that was fairly easily deducible from the … Read more >>

As usual a thoroughly satisfactory crossword from Dac; indeed ‘satisfactory’ is to damn with faint praise. It is of course far more than satisfactory, and as always the surfaces are smooth and shiny. … Read more >>

A bit of a mixed bag today we feel from Scorpion. We deduced the theme fairly early on and thought that we would have to resort to the internet to work out some … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism A fairly standard Quixote with some nice clues. As a sceptic, I rather liked 13 down.  Across 1 Trouble Spots: Tots around Roubles + … Read more >>

The third Sunday Raich I’ve drawn on the trot, I think, so it seems the 152 calendar is somewhat in sync with that of the IoS. No complaints at all from me, as … Read more >>

Someone once asked us if being a blogger took the pleasure out of completing the puzzles. Our answer was a resounding …. “No!” Today was definitely one of the occasions when our faces … Read more >>

If it’s Friday it’s usually Phi and so it is today.       I found this a bit tougher than some Phis that I have solved recently, but the parsing was very … Read more >>

Yet another excellent workout from Klingsor this morning. Many of the clues have quite tricky constructions, but it is all perfectly fair and often very nice. As always with Klingsor — what else, when … Read more >>

An enjoyable but not spectacular puzzle from Dac. As usual the clues were well composed with some clever use of adjectives, nouns and verbs changing usage which some people may not like…. but … Read more >>

The pleasure and challenge of blogging an Anax had not fallen to me in a good long while, so I was excited this morning when I first set eyes on the grid. However, … Read more >>

Punk and I keep bumping into one another on a Monday morning, which I don’t mind in the least, because his puzzles always raise a few laughs and smiles, which is rather what … Read more >>

With the date being what it was, I was half-expecting un poisson d’avril theme, but it turned out not to be so. However, since it was also Palm Sunday, we have a little … Read more >>

A challenging yet entertaining Saturday puzzle from Bannsider this week, featuring some wonderfully misleading surfaces and inventive wordplay. I did wonder if there were going to be a Ronnie Barker theme, due to … Read more >>

As usual a good crossword from Phi. It was not the difficult one that some on this site feared when we had some easier ones early in the week, but it was made harder … Read more >>

Nimrod never fails to impress us. His latest Inquisitor took us a while to finish but provided much enjoyable head-scratching until the puzzle eventually fell into place. We wondered what we would have … Read more >>