Independent

From today, I have transferred from blogging weekday Guardian crosswords on a 3-week cycle to blogging Independent weekday crosswords on a weekly cycle. I have blogged Phi crosswords in the Independent once or … Read more >>

The usual outstanding crossword from Anax. Of course there are one or two about which I’m not quite sure, but that’s usual. There are some quite brilliant clues here. I’ve referred to one … Read more >>

It’s a Dac, so it’s what you expect, just a fine puzzle as per usual. My learned colleagues have been under the impression that Dac appears every Wednesday, but actually he gets a … Read more >>

It’s Tuesday and the puzzle has been set b(u)y Scorpion, so there just has to be a theme to it, I thought, and Scorpion did not let me down. As themes go, this … Read more >>

People were saying on last Friday’s Indy blog that Phi’s crossword was a bit harder than usual, and that was my experience with this Monday Quixote – a few less common words and … Read more >>

A puzzle from Hypnos that was in parts perhaps easier to solve than parse.  It was certainly the hardest of the IoS puzzles I’ve blogged so far, with a number of clues that … Read more >>

Need some exercise for the new year – Nestor’s puzzle is certainly a good work out! As you would expect. So the first Saturday of 2012 brings us a Nestor puzzle, with some … Read more >>

Unusually difficult for Phi today, I thought: on my first pass I solved far fewer clues than usual. Perhaps this was the result of my incompetence but one factor was the number of … Read more >>

Nimrod again, I’m sure I seem to get more than my fair share of his recently. I found bits of this tough and some clues I still can’t explain to myself properly so help … Read more >>

Another crop of concisely worded, sound clues with silky smooth surface readings – one would expect nothing else of Dac, of course. As Ali mentioned in his Dac blog last week, let’s hope … Read more >>

Apologies for the delay with the blog. This was quite something, with 2 very long thematic answers relating to 16/12. I haven’t actually read any of his work, but am familiar with the … Read more >>

Quixote’s first Indy appearance of 2012 and the usual excellent puzzle.    A little on the easy side even by Quixote’s accessible standards, I found.    Solving time, 15 mins. * = anagram ACROSS 1 … Read more >>

This puzzle did not leave me very happy as I couldn’t see the word-play in 23Across and took ages to stumble on the conjointed INTO in 29Across. Not a very satisfactory state of … Read more >>

A pleasant puzzle to round the year off – with a number of clue readings and answers nodding respectfully to the date, and a lovely clue at 18D, which I am considering adopting … Read more >>

It’s that Friday feeling, Phi returns. Can’t spot any  Ninas or themes –  ghost or otherwise but I was wrong last time I said that about a Phi puzzle. This seemed quite easy … Read more >>