Independent

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 >>

A thoroughly enjoyable puzzle with some great clues and a mini-theme. Two or three potentially tricky words (5, 11 and 25) but I thought these were all fairly clued and very gettable from … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone A good variety of clues with some excellent surface readings.  There were just a couple that I thought were a little questionable. Across 1 Miaow: (I am)* + ow. 4 … Read more >>

Solving time, 14 mins * = anagram ACROSS 1 DEad SO LATE 5 ST PAUL New Testament epistle writer and US city 9 REF ERR A L 10 C RUM B S 12 … Read more >>

There’s a Nina here which I spotted during solving but only just worked out what it’s about. From the top left-hand corner we have GABRIELLE, BREE, SUSAN, LYNETTE and EDIE (the first E … Read more >>

Across 1 (TIE FOR)*,PA’S,SAGE – RITE OF PASSAGE. 8 MAC’S (reversed) 9 SOMERSAULT – sounds like “summer salt”, which are both types of “season”. Not sure about “pouring out” as the homophone indicator … Read more >>