Independent

Excellent as ever from Dac but I’m not sure about 1d and 21. Across 1 (TEACHER TRACKS)*,CH – CHARACTER SKETCH. 9 MOO’S,E 10 M,OMEN,TO,US 11 (TIES USA)* – AT ISSUE. 12 DR,OP’S,IN 13 … Read more >>

The wordplay is always fine, but forgive me if I’m lukewarm about some of the surfaces, which seem to me to be a bit thin. ‘Publication with no trouble elevated colour’; ‘A liberal honour … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone A Christmas list themed puzzle that had some well-constructed clues, but a little too much obscure stuff (e.g. abolla, ibo) for my liking. There were a couple I didn’t … Read more >>

A nice 4-based crossword from Phi today. Across 1 THE MOONSTONE — them (not so)* one — OK once one has 4 8 FLORIDA — (fair old)* — excellent &lit. 9 V AUNTED … Read more >>

It’s not often we see a preamble in an Indy puzzle, and I’m not really sure we needed one here. If the X in the thematic clues was replaced by 7 then surely … Read more >>

A very good puzzle from Mordred – tricky, but not impenetrably so, and good fun to solve. There’s a Nina too, in the 8th row of the grid, although I’m not sure what … Read more >>

Only 20 puzzleS to go now till Quixote’s 1000th. Always a very accessible puzzle, solving time, 15 mins. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 CEREAL “Serial” 4 A B ERRANT (ranter)* … Read more >>

Harder than usual for Dac, I thought – two brilliant &lit clues involving anagrams and a great puzzle overall – solving time, 36 mins * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 1 COLOURLESS   … Read more >>

Great stuff as ever from the V-man. There’s a theme running through this one, with 9/25A kicking things off and then numerous references to the letter “U” in both clues and answers. I … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone This was mostly fairly easy, but had a couple of clues that I struggled to understand even after I’d got the answer. My only criticism would be that there … Read more >>

It’s not often that I think that Nimrod isn’t the hardest weekday puzzle, but I really struggled with this one! I only solved 3 clues on my first pass and it took me … Read more >>

A rare treat: Virgilius on a Saturday. About the same level of difficulty as we’ve come to expect from Virgilius and a theme of course: this time, it’s centred around two well-known phrases … Read more >>

This was tough as Nimrod usually is, but I got there in the end.    There is a Nina (hidden message) which helped me from reasonably early on – I refer to it after … Read more >>

Solving time, 14 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 CUB A 3 DE-CREED 8 ARABIAN NIGHTS (aghast in NI bar)* 9 A RR (Right Reverend) ESTEE(m) 10 FUR ROW 11 INLIER I in … Read more >>

As always with Dac, clue after clue hits the button. Across 1 SUBJECT — 2 defs 5 DA(STAR)D — although the similar word with a different initial letter has a similar meaning, at … Read more >>