Independent

09:00 Saturday morning, 11th July, before I had gone out to buy the Independent,  there was a news item on the radio that indicated it was 150 years to the day since the … Read more >>

A puzzle in the offbeat style I associate with Morph who I had the pleasure of meeting at Sloggers and Betters 5 back in May. Solving time, 29 mins. Two intersecting 13-letter entries … Read more >>

Solving time, 20 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 FAST Double definition – clue dividing at anything/impure 3 HACKNEYED My favourite clue “Overfamiliar and cheeky when mixing” (and cheeky)* 9 … Read more >>

Lovely stuff as ever from Dac, and pleasingly not too difficult to solve post-midnight Across 1 RUSTLE – ST. in RULE 4 TAFFRAIL – A,FF in TRAIL 9 SARONG – SA,”Wrong” 10 SCHEDULE … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Quite tough in places, with one or two that I’m not sure about. It’s often worth checking for a theme or Nina with Virgilius, but … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def I found this a lot easier than some of the recent Monday puzzles. There didn’t seem to be any obvious theme or NINA. Across 1 … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Thankfully (from a blogger’s point of view!) a good deal easier than some we’ve seen this week, but good fun all the same. Across 1 … Read more >>

Has Anax set for the Indy before? I don’t think so (waits to be proved wrong). He sets for various publications, is a regular commenter here and has popped up at Sloggers’n’Betters events.  … Read more >>

Well, we knew that there was a one in three chance of getting a Nimrod before the week was out, so I braced myself for this and started late last night. I’ve been … Read more >>

I found this much harder than usual because of some items in the top half of the grid that were new to me and a silly mistake with 6 across which meant I … Read more >>

Top quality puzzle from Dac, great variety, subtlety and no loose ends.  Solving time, 28 mins. * = anagram  < = reversed 1 TO PIC   “pick”   ‘to’ appearing as itself in the wordplay … Read more >>

Phew! I think that was about as difficult a crossword as I’ve ever done. After nearly an hour less than half of it was completed, so I resigned myself to the full panoply … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def Doing the Monday blog, I seem to get a disproportionate number of tough puzzles and this was no exception. There was an ice-skating related NINA … Read more >>

An interesting solve. Having got the first 3 down answers immediately, I was convinced that there was probably going to be a perimeter message reading ‘HAVE….’. It wasn’t until I got WOODSTOCK and … Read more >>

This puzzle was difficult but entertaining, with themewords at three evels – 23D GOON, the three Goons. at 13, 19, 16D, and characters associated with them at 15, 6 & 2, and 16A … Read more >>