Independent

I found this quite a tough puzzle from Poins, but I didn’t help myself by initially entering a couple of wrong answers.  That could be because I decided to tackle it with a … Read more >>

In one of the crossword blog sites I was reading last week I came across a comment from someone who said they enjoyed a specific crossword because the clues had  ‘no triple lutz reversed … Read more >>

Phi has as usual produced a very pleasing crossword, perhaps on the easier side — at any rate I found it to be so, although whether or not a crossword is easy seems … Read more >>

Anarche has stopped running dressed as a bottle for charity for long enough to weave more trickery for the unwary, indeed there’s at least one I just can’t see the wordplay to. I … Read more >>

There was the usual crop of high-quality, carefully crafted clues on offer from Dac this Wednesday morning. As usual, they were as pleasurable to blog as they were to solve. Having said that, … Read more >>

The good thing about regular crossword solving is that, given any puzzle at random by a non-cruciverbalist, you would expect to be able to prove your worth by casually solving one or two … Read more >>

Pleasing puzzle in Quixote’s normal style.      Solving time, 26 mins. * = anagram ACROSS 1   DEMOCRAT     come reversed in drat 5  ST IVES     Port in Cornwall    I’ve after t (time) in SS (steamship) … Read more >>

Quite a mixture of difficulty levels in this puzzle, I thought. Some very straightforward clues, some that took some serious unravelling. I am trying to include links in this blog, but the WiFi … Read more >>

After this setter’s last Saturday outing, the rather fanstastic Independent 7,770, I was more than happy to land a Mordred offering to blog. This one was also very impressive. There’s an extensive theme … Read more >>

And so it’s Friday and Phi after yesterday’s rather hard Nimrod about the Today Programme, this seemed a lot easier.   Well here we have a Nina of Six  Hundredth Year across the … Read more >>

To be brutally honest, I have to say that Nimrod ran rings around me with today’s puzzle, even more so than usual. Of all the puzzles that I have blogged to date, this … Read more >>

Glorioius stuff as ever from Dac. Quite a tough bottom half I found, but I got there in the end. If I have a single criticism – and I’m saying this only becasue … Read more >>

It seems to be ages since Eimi appeared, certainly ages since I blogged one of his crosswords. Everything was fairly easy today and it wasn’t the agonising Tuesday experience that I’d been fearing. … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism A very pleasant puzzle themed around the birds and the bees. I got the theme relatively quickly, which meant I was able to make … Read more >>

A few hard-boiled eggs too many in this Sunday competition puzzle which I found to be more of a drag than a piece of entertainment. Some of the devices may not seem fair … Read more >>