Guardian

I learned a couple of new words today, though both were gettable/guessable from their anagrams and some crossing letters. I started off quickly with this one but struggled a bit towards the end. … Read more >>

A gentle start to the week. Vulcan starts the week off with a straightforward Guardian offering, which was a bit too easy for my own personal taste, but still had some good clues … Read more >>

Another excellent Prize puzzle from Paul. Tricky to get started: the clues are not obscure but just not obvious, if you get what I mean. Thanks Paul   ACROSS 1 CALLIGRAPHIST A measure of … Read more >>

Thanks to Paul for the challenge. I was getting nowhere until 18 across was cracked. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1. Scientific solver admits he is perplexed by abbreviation of name … Read more >>

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28241. As a crossword with very few easy answer, I found this challenging, particularly for the cross-references, but very well crafted, and worth the effort. There are … Read more >>

A reasonably tough challenge from Imogen today, with one or two tricky bits of parsing but I think I got there in the end. The clues are, on the whole, elegantly constructed, with … Read more >>

Plenty to enjoy here – I particularly liked 6ac, 9ac, 21ac, 1dn, 3dn, and 5dn. Many thanks to Brendan for the puzzle. 13ac INNER CITIES refers to the city names hidden inside the … Read more >>

I haven’t always been a big fan of Anto’s puzzles in the past, but I enjoyed this one: a few slightly quirky moments, but some nice touches as well. Thanks to Anto.   … Read more >>

I found this a quite tough but, as usual with Tramp, enjoyable challenge. One thing that made it hard to get started was the unusual paucity of anagrams, which are always good for … Read more >>

The four long downs can make this grid rather intimidating, but Picaroon fills and clues it with great style, as usual. Thanks to him for another enjoyable puzzle.           … Read more >>

Thanks Vlad for the challenge. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Could some of the clues refer to the 2down “fiasco”. Across 1. Sneakily managing to get rid of women’s sport (7) ANGLING … Read more >>

The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28234. I seem to be cornering Qaos puzzles, which is OK by me. As for a theme (is is Qaos, after all), it is announced at 11A … Read more >>

A typically elegant and witty puzzle from Nutmeg today. Many thanks to her for the fun. Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1 First chapter on one subject (5) TOPIC TOP (first) … Read more >>