Independent

A very good (and tough in places) puzzle with an unusual theme: the top and bottom rows read OUR COUNTRY WEE ONE ENGLAND NIL. See 21a for a full explanation as to what … Read more >>

This is the first puzzle I’ve solved in what has so far been a pretty miserable week, with myself and MrsD both laid low with a virus and our 8 month old son … Read more >>

I found this quite an easy puzzle – solving time 15 mins but there’s one I do not understand. Notes on some clues below, including that one. Happy to explain others if asked … Read more >>

A pleasing puzzle by Dac.    Solving time: 18 mins * = (anagram)*   < = reversed ACROSS 1 DEF (l = L) ECT       Excellent misleading surface 11 RO (A) ST (i) … Read more >>

Another highly thematic puzzle from Virgilius. In this case all the down answers can be seen as dangerous women. Corrections and clarifications are in italics. Across 9 AZORES — “as oars” 14 ENAMEL … Read more >>

One of those themed crosswords where a large number of the clues draw their definition from one of the other clues (in this case 11 across). With this type of puzzle, you either … Read more >>

I’d read four or five clues before I realised that something odd was going on and at first I thought the wrong grid had been printed. Then I spotted that there was no … Read more >>

Solving time: 10 minutes when I gave up … … trying to work out 6D. I don’t know quite enough gods and ?A?A?A?A doesn’t help much. I guess the story is a SAGA, … Read more >>

Across 4 (SHE COSTS O)* – COHOSTESS. Quite a strange clue as it’s not really an &lit (“She costs nothing when partying”) but it reads like one. 9 ATE in NS – NATES … Read more >>

Unfortunately I’m not the best person to be blogging this, since I have never read anything by Philip Pullman, but Google always helps. Probably I’ve missed something. It seems that this is timed … Read more >>

This site was ringing with praise for Virgilius last week. This puzzle was another excellent example of why. A theme (as usual) reasonably obvious and which helped speed up solving at the end. … Read more >>

After a really tough puzzle by Tees last week, I was relieved to find this one was a little easier. I even had some time to read the paper (although most of the … Read more >>

The solution appears next to the puzzle!   Ask someone to cut it out or mask it.    I will not be solving it so no blog this week – anyone who wishes can step … Read more >>

Nice puzzle from The Editor with a theme that revealed itself in two parts for me: first, cities then Italian cities. Plaudits for getting so many in, especially when so many of them … Read more >>

I know next to nothing about horse-racing so once I’d twigged the theme I had to use Google to check a couple of answers that I got from the wordplay (1a and 28a). There are … Read more >>