Independent

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 >>

An excellent puzzle, as usual, from this top setter. Solving time: 19 mins * = anagram  < = reverse ACROSS 4 H AND M (Clothes shop) AID 11 A LEX (Luthor – Superman’s … Read more >>

A St Andrew’s Day theme in the appropriate week. One or two tricky clues, but I found it fairly easy overall. Solving time: 16 mins. Notes on some clues below – happy to … Read more >>

Across 4 SCHNAPPS – cleverly done. A drunkard might pronounce “snaps” (pictures = shots) as SCHNAPPS. The literal reading works too. 10 D in LANG,RAVE – this was new to me but fairly … Read more >>

The usual brilliant crossword from Virgilius. His clues are consistently excellent, but there is nearly always a very clever theme, which is usually signposted by the fact that the grid is a bit … Read more >>

I found this very tough, although the Milton theme helped a lot if you were at all familiar with his work. My favourite clue was 25 – a superbly hidden anagram. Across 8 … Read more >>

In his blog yesterday, nmsindy was wondering why Phi had been moved from his usual Friday slot; this puzzle might provide an explanation… Across 8 A,(LIFE)* – I was all set to deride … Read more >>

Across 3 A,MB,U,LANCES – I hesitated a bit over this as I didn’t know that LANCE=move quickly but with A,MB,U and a definition of “hospital transport” there’s not much else it can be. … Read more >>