Independent

I found that I raced through most of this one before grinding to a standstill when just one or two clues from the end. Bizarrely, 1 kept me guessing till the very end, … Read more >>

A rare weekday appearance from Monk. Not sure I’ve ever blogged one of his puzzles before, but I have to say I found this pretty tricky. There were a lot of very well … Read more >>

Dac is presumably going to appear on Saturday, and instead of a fairly easy task I found that we have a setter with whom I usually have some trouble. But either I’m getting … Read more >>

I had a good chat with Anax on Saturday night at the Derby Sloggers &Betters so it was a surprise that he didn’t say he was the setter for today (let alone give … Read more >>

Gentle, pleasing, puzzle from Quixote, solved very fast for me, 16 mins.     A few words that I did not know or had forgotten but was able to get them quite quickly from the … Read more >>

I find Hypnos tends to be one of the tougher of the IoS setters, but thankfully – from a blogger’s point of view, at least – this one was quite manageable. The North-East … Read more >>

If there is a theme in this puzzle, I can’t spot it.  The puzzle is not a pangram.  This was simply a soundly constructed crossword with only a couple of  words or phrases … Read more >>

For anyone who has navigated here directly and/or solved this online, your attention is drawn to this note on the main page. I had no idea that this puzzle was used for the … Read more >>

A good crossword from Mordred today, although there was in my opinion too much checking of less than 50%, including two of the dreaded 2 out of 5s. Otherwise nothing very controversial I … Read more >>

Half expected Crosophile as I’ve got him a few months running on Wednesdays, but always a pleasure to get a Dac as ever little contentious with a couple of &lits. Few anagrams and … Read more >>

This was a puzzle to be savoured, a treasure trove for word lovers, and so perhaps not the ideal puzzle to have to zip through to write a blog. Nor was it the … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I’m not entirely sure I follow this one. I think the theme is words said in a Northern accent, although I’d never thought of … Read more >>

Those who have tackled Raich’s crosswords since he started setting for the Indy will know that he’s keen on his football, so I’ll go straight into cliché land and say that this was … Read more >>

I’m usually pretty excited to see a (relatively rare) appearance from Monk pop up, especially on a Saturday. Unfortunately, and probably simply to do with the challenges of being self-employed now, I got … Read more >>

One of those crosswords that repeatedly refers to a single clue, so one’s rate of progress depends on how quickly this clue is solved. 8 is quite easy, so the only difficulty was … Read more >>