Independent

There must be some special occasion today for Dac to be ousted from his regular Wednesday slot. There is! Today is the 90th birthday of The Reverend John Galbraith Graham MBE aka Araucaria … Read more >>

I felt rather out of my depth with Nimrod’s offering this morning. I can only marvel at the hard work and ingenuity that has gone into setting this puzzle and bemoan my own … Read more >>

Excellent puzzle full of references appropriate to the day from Radian, which I found ranged from very easy to quite tricky.    Solving times, 27 mins, with the top half much harder than the … Read more >>

A fairly easy solve for me, after the previous day’s debacle with Nimrod for which I was quite glad. 12 ac was a new word on me but the anagram and crossing letters led … Read more >>

I regularly used to struggle with Nimrod puzzles when I was blogging the daily Independent puzzles, and it’s nice to see that some things don’t change. In fact, once again I was saved … Read more >>

As always with Phi, a good crossword with no apparent weaknesses, all the clues utterly sound and satisfactory. No particular clue stood out for me, but that is often the case with Phi: … Read more >>

Thursday fun with Anax, this is a nod to us at fifteensquared. That, however, really has nothing whatsoever to do as a help in solving this crossword. It’s an Anax so it’s tough in places … Read more >>

Sound, tight clueing and an enjoyable, not overly challenging, solve: would we expect anything else on a Wednesday morning from Dac? Some new words for me at 3, 7 and 12, but the … Read more >>

Always a pleasure to land a Math puzzle. The odd-looking grid suggested there’d be some kind of theme, but I didn’t spot anything obvious at first. I also crippled myself in the SE … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I thought this was quite difficult, mainly because of the longer phrases which ate up a lot of the grid and also a few … Read more >>

The usual relatively easy Sunday solve from Quixote. And a rather hurried blog from me. Across 6 SCHOLASTIC Hot classic in translation – it’s educational *(Hot classic) 9 NAIL Slow creatures shedding outer … Read more >>

Congrats to Anax for a stonking puzzle that no doubt had a few in Derby scratching their collective heads over their pints. While I was struggling over this, I could imagine them all … Read more >>

After my plaintive cry that I might not be able to post today, the 15sq genie and helper (djinn and tonic) spirited away from the Indy with an early copy so here it … Read more >>

The key to this puzzle was correct interpretation of the references to the numerals 1-10 that, rather cleverly, appeared in ascending order as the first words of each of the ten across clues: … Read more >>

It’s Wednesday. Which means it’s Dac. Which means it’s the usual excellence and nary a thing to complain about. I loved it all, but special mentions for 9A and 6D. Across 1 RIGHTABLE … Read more >>