Independent

I found this extremely tough, to say the least, setter made tremendous effort to use meanings of words that gave consistent surface readings. Solving time, 73 mins. * = anagram < = reversed … Read more >>

A bit harder than some by Quixote, solving time 35 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 BAR (MA)N 4 FU (SIN)G 8 ANTICOAGULANTS (a nostalgic aunt)* 10 G E (HE)NNA … Read more >>

Nice stuff as always from the mid-week maestro. There are some great clues here. Across 1 HOSTA – S[-een] in HOT,A 4 RELOCATED – CO. rev. in RELATED 9 LOOPINESS – PINE’s in … Read more >>

How Virgilius keeps on thinking up these original ideas I don’t know. This time he is using the numbers of the clues and sometimes also the numbers in their enumerations. Across 1 A … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def There were some extremely difficult clues in this and I’m not sure that I’ve got all the answers correctly. The Indy website no longer seems … Read more >>

Not for the first time, a puzzle from Phi with a musical flavour.   Four musical instruments in symmetrical positions in the corners and a fifth in 11 down.  A pleasing solve, with everything … Read more >>

I solved this in an afternoon whilst watching sport on television, so the fact that I could multi-task probably means that the sport wasn’t too engrossing and the crossword wasn’t too difficult. The … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Interesting puzzle. Despite only having to blog about six clues, I’ve failed to manage them all: 1dn is still searching for an explanation. Across 8 … Read more >>

I found this quite easy, solving time 14 mins * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 DEC (December) A MP 5 DRAW BACK (vb) 9 ME S(M)ERISED (desires)* – it’s also reversed,  … Read more >>

A typically pleasant crossword. Unusually for Dac, there are one or two things I’m not completely comfortable with: no doubt someone will come to the rescue. Across 1 TAR BOOS H 6 EX(PO’S)E … Read more >>

Apologies for not writing this up before disappearing for the Bank Holiday weekend. This was a challenging but not too difficult puzzle, taking me 13:50. A fine set of varied answers and plenty … Read more >>

A very entertaining puzzle with a lot of across answers connected to Steve Coogan’s finest creation (who can be seen at 1/3A). I spotted the name early on and, having seen I’m Alan … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def A tricky bank holiday puzzle with some very good clues, 13 down being my favourite, but also a few that I was a bit uncertain … Read more >>

I wasn’t sure how easy this was since I chose to solve it online after midnight, being busy late on Friday morning and not wanting to get up safely early, but there are … Read more >>

Nice stuff from Tees. Some excellent clues here, though there are one ot two I can’t quite piece together, so any pointers appreciated. This looks like the kind of grid which screams Nina, … Read more >>