Independent

It’s been a good week of puzzles in the Indy and a pretty tough one too. I got on fine with this one as Phi rarely puts a foot wrong with his clueing, … Read more >>

With his trademark 15-letter answers you certainly get your money’s worth from Nimrod.  This took me ages, of course, and couldn’t have finished without a bit of dictionary-bashing etc.  I found the bottom … Read more >>

Very inventive and satisfying puzzle from Nestor, quite hard, solving time 45 mins. * = anagram   < = reversed ACROSS 1 A  NDROMEDA GALAXY    (Gary Oldman  axed)* 10 LEANEST     “Art showing tendency that’s … Read more >>

Solving time, 22 mins.    Lower half harder than top half, I found * = anagram    < = reversed ACROSS 1 LAPP    (p pal)< 4 SUBJECT   S 9 SCAR(C)E 10 PEA (CO C)KS 11 … Read more >>

A rare weekday outing for Mass, with whom I’m most familiar via the concise crossword that shares a page with Beelzebub in the Independent on Sunday, and a particularly challenging and very thoroughly … Read more >>

Mordred’s crosswords are for some reason unfamiliar to me, but this one contains plenty of very nice clues, one or two of which I found difficult.  There must be some sort of a Nina here, with the … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism An excellent offering from Math with some great clues. I particularly liked 12 across and the 4/13 combination was very amusing. The NINA, which … Read more >>

I found this puzzle very difficult, and gave up unaided solving after 35 minutes with 6 and 18 remaining – I got 6 from a Chambers hunt, but needed a wildcard search for … Read more >>

The usual nice Phi, not too hard but one or two tricky ones.  I think the little Nina is just that 10ac refers to 11ac and 26ac refers to 25ac. Across 1 MO(V AB)LES — my … Read more >>

I got a little bit psyched out last time I blogged a Scorpion, but thankfully this one was a bit more manageable. It was still a challenge though, and there are perhaps one … Read more >>

Solving time, 21 mins * = anagram   < = reversed ACROSS 1 M (IS) USE 4 GRIM ACES 9 NO TI(C)ES 11 NET BALL    ten< 12 PEPPER-AND-SALT       hairstyle 14 LISTENERS    (let sirens)* 16 … Read more >>

Excellent puzzle, solving time 26 mins, lots of puns in the classic crossword style. Not sure if it is just coincidence but each symmetrical pair of 13-letter entries seemed somewhat similar to each … Read more >>

Enjoyable stuff as ever from Virgilius. There are a lot of double defs and homophones here, but it never seems repetitive. There seems to be a mini theme with a number of references … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Enjoyable and very straightforward puzzle from Eimi. There was less obscure stuff than is sometimes the case, although 7 down was a new word … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism This seemed much more difficult than the usual Phi and some of the definitions were like the sort of left field thing you’d expect … Read more >>