Independent

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 >>

Is it a Double Pangram? – Yes it is! First pass 10 answers in 10 mins which is good going for me, and by the end of the first session I was stuck … Read more >>

I suppose that many of us, having solved so many crosswords and taken part in so many quizzes over the years, probably feel that our general knowledge is pretty reasonable and that we … Read more >>

Finally! I’ve been waiting to land a Klingsor puzzle to blog ever since he kindly published one of mine on his website last December. 10 months later, here we go. It being Thursday, … Read more >>

As usual a near-perfect crossword from Dac. Week after week he goes on producing these masterpieces. There is hardly anything here — so far as I can see — which calls for much comment … Read more >>