Intimidating at first and enjoyable throughout – I liked all of the outer long clues, and other favourites were 10ac, 19ac, 3dn, and 16dn. Thanks to Philistine.
Guardian
Guardian 28,109 – Picaroon
A strong week of Guardian puzzles continues with another great offering from Picaroon. The four long down answers in this grid are either a big help if you can solve them early on, … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 28,108 by Crucible
Day 24 in the Lockdown House, and your blogger is trying to keep his spirits up…
Guardian Cryptic 28,107 by Imogen
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28107. A sparkling puzzle for these dark times from Imogen, with much humour, anchored by the pair of rather improbable quotes at 9A and 25A (which puts … Read more >>
Quiptic 1,065 by Carpathian
Carpathian provides another classic example of a Quiptic on this somewhat non-standard Bank Holiday. Concise clues with some good surfaces; I liked the port-swilling uncle in 14a, the cleverly-misleading old drawing in 5d, … Read more >>
Guardian 28,106 / Brendan
It’s a real treat to see Brendan on a Monday. A bit more of a challenge than usual, perhaps, but I hope those who prefer a ‘gentle start to the week’ won’t be … Read more >>
Guardian Prize 28,099 by Paul
A fiendishly clever puzzle by Paul – but no prizes! I think that this was the first Saturday puzzle for which no prizes are to be awarded, presumably because the office is in … Read more >>
Guardian 28,104 / Paul
Paul rounds off the week with a mixture of straightforward clues to get us started and some more challenging ones to make us think. It took a few minutes to get started – … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 28,103 by Nutmeg
Lots of fun with some very nice misdirection – favourites were 14ac, 20ac, 23ac, 5dn, and 15dn. Thanks to Nutmeg
Guardian 28,102 – Qaos
Qaos has a tendency to be somewhat “liberal” with his cryptic grammar at times. I don’t usually complain about this, but there seems to be rather more of it than usual here, with … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 28,101 by Vlad
I always struggle with Vlad puzzles, and this was no exception.
Guardian Quiptic 1,064/Pasquale
It’s almost two years to the day since Pasquale last compiled a Quiptic for us. In the main cryptic slot in the Guardian, he is considered to be a fair but sometimes difficult … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 28,100 by Vulcan
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/28100. I try not to be negative, but the best I can say here is that it was over quickly. Three cryptic definitions about which Rufus might … Read more >>
Guardian Genius 201
The March Genius is one of the hardest puzzles I have encountered in this series of puzzles. The changes used to get from defined answers to treated answers were more … Read more >>
Guardian Prize 28,093 by Philistine
I found this entertaining, a nice variety of clues. Thank you Philistine. ACROSS 9 HERMITAGE Tradition to include prom finale in retreat (9) HERITAGE (tradition) contains (to include) proM (final letter) 10 … Read more >>