Independent

Well not really; rather good, as I have come to expect from Punk. At first he seemed rather difficult and unsatisfactory, but increasingly nowadays I enjoy his well-constructed crosswords. Across 1 RHUBARB. There … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed The Independent continued its trend of trying out less well-known compilers for the Monday puzzle. Radian was another new compiler for me, although I don’t know if it’s actually a … Read more >>

The usual sound and enjoyable stuff from Phi – there don’t seem to be many novels here and I wonder if I’m missing anything. Across 9 TO THE LIGHTHOUSE, one of the four … Read more >>

Excellent puzzle from Morph with a theme that must be close to the heart of many a crossword solver: 10A. The ones I recognised were 4a,9a,27a,3d,4d,6d and 17d. I think I noticed what … Read more >>

I’ll have to admit defeat on this one. The two main features were a line of an Elton John song covering 5 clues and many clues linked to one word from it. When … Read more >>

I found this harder than usual – solving time 39 minutes. * = anagram ACROSS 1 CAR ACT (A CU) S Chieftain who fought the Romans in Britain Cu = copper 10 CON … Read more >>

Dac was described last week as a “class act” by a fellow blogger – I couldn’t agree more. Across 1 HAS,TEN – I briefly considered N for “mid-morning”. 10 IRAQI – I think … Read more >>

Full blog to appear soon…

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed The nuclear accident theme of some of the clues helping me to get off to a flying start on this, but then I started to struggle, with my lack of … Read more >>

Very much on the easy side, I thought. Good puzzle from Phi as ever. Solving time, 13 mins. <  = reversed * = anagram ACROSS 5 BESIDE ONESELF Double definition, the second slightly … Read more >>

Tough-in-places but enjoyable-all-over puzzle from Nestor. Still not sure about 19a and 4d though. Across 1 P in ELM,AXED,ABATES – SET A BAD EXAMPLE. Cleverly constructed clue although the wordplay completely passed me … Read more >>

Across 1 (THE LAW)* in LEAP,ON – LETHAL WEAPON. 9 KIN,IS,G,ZED – I always think KIN whenever I see “family” so I got this fairly quickly. 10 SINUS – the wordplay seems to … Read more >>

Solving time 13 mins. A long quote which might have made all the difference as I knew it and entered it first time round. * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS 6 CHOR … Read more >>

This blog is brought to you you in association with the NHS – caring for you every day! Well that will teach me!  Out on the town with the Sloggers and Betters and I … Read more >>

Heavens what an effort. After a long time I’d done very little, and really thought that I’d have to cheat and look at the website, but eventually it all worked out, although there … Read more >>