Independent

The usual enjoyable bag of tricks from Quixote. A couple of inventive clues stood out for us: 6 down and 17 across. ACROSS 1. KOPECK ‘ok’ backwards, followed by peck ‘a little kiss’ … Read more >>

Not the easiest Dac puzzle, I thought. The explanation of two or three answers still eludes me, but no doubt someone will explain. The two symmetrical pairs of eight-letter answers look significant, but … Read more >>

Enjoyable, themed, puzzle from Tees, solving time 38 mins.       Very impressed with how much themed material was in the grid, without sign of strain with other answers. * = anagram    < = reversed … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism This was one of those puzzles where I spent more time working out the logic behind some of the answers than I did filling … Read more >>

I found this to be one of the hardest Phi puzzles we’ve had in a while, eventually having to give up with 4 clues unsolved. There are a few obscure words in here … Read more >>

How do you refer to your Significant Other? Tyrus reminds us of a few choice expressions with perhaps the notable omission of “She Who Must Be Obeyed”. Across 6 SPOT-ON T[ime] inside SPOON … Read more >>

Another enjoyable, well clued puzzle from Quixote. The south-west corner took longest, for no good reason – just couldn’t think of the right words for a while. H was pleased to see ‘demotic’ … Read more >>

An unusual Thursday appearance for Dac, caused by the jiggling necessary to fit in Virgilius’s St Patrick’s Day crossword on Wednesday, so this must be one of the gentler Thursday offerings; but surely … Read more >>

A special puzzle on the Irish national day, St Patrick’s Day, by Virgilius who hails from there.        Impressive that so much thematic material was packed into clues and answers.    Great stuff as always … Read more >>

A pretty tough but enjoyable themed puzzle from a Fifteensquared regular. The theme is spelled out in a Nina across the top row, and fans of prison-based sitcoms, or perhaps just those of … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism I finished this fairly quickly, with only the NE corner giving me a few problems. There was an unusually high number of &lits, of … Read more >>

This was a fairly easy puzzle for Nimrod, solved in 12 minutes. My first instinct on sight of the grid, with two black corners and big T’s in the middle, was “there must … Read more >>

An unusually large number of words that I hadn’t really heard of in the usual nice Phi offering. The pairs of four-letter answers at top R and bottom L suggest something, but I … Read more >>

This was very good indeed. nmsindy has admitted to weaknesses esp films but is prepared to admit to a strength, football, which was v helpful here.    Solving time, 50 mins. Thematic words 13 … Read more >>

An in-bed solve, lasting perhaps 25 minutes. ACROSS 1.  R(AD)OME 4. S POKE N 8. PALL OR 9. SOLSTICE (it’s close)* 10. CO M MAN DAN T 11. HANK dd Hank Marvin of … Read more >>