Guardian

A fairly gentle puzzle from Pasquale to round off a week of good puzzles: nothing too controversial or obscure, I think, with a nice mix of clue types and a few smiles along … Read more >>

This was another eclectic offering from Araucaria, with its mix of literary allusions, foreign language, science and geography, all interwoven with the main theme. We were told that the four entries were unoficially … Read more >>

A tough but very entertaining puzzle from Puck with a couple of cleverly intertwined themes and some very involved wordplay (one of those where you think “this could have been a prize puzzle”). … Read more >>

It is always a pleasure solving a puzzle by Paul; and blogging one is even more so. I had quite a few laughs weaving through the clues, challenging but very fair and sometimes … Read more >>

No Rufus today, but to replace him we have an (as ever) excellent puzzle from Orlando. There are some lovely clues here. Across 1. EXHIBIT EX = “Former” + H = “husband” + … Read more >>

A pretty straightforward puzzle from Paul this week.  I especially liked 6 down, which was a new word to me, and 19 down was a fun clue too.  Apologies in advance for any typos, … Read more >>

An outstandingly entertaining and interesting puzzle by Crucible, celebrating a quatercentenary, to end off an excellent week (I even quite enjoyed the Gordius!). I usually think of Crucible as being at the hard … Read more >>

An entertaining offering from Brendan. … … … … The appearance of envelopes in almost every clue must be a theme of sorts; then there is the device indicated in 13A, for which … Read more >>

A nice puzzle from Gordius – with a few exceptions (noted below), I don’t think this should have created too many problems. Across 1. ORDNANCE SURVEY ORDNANCE = “Artillery” + SURVEY = “inspection”; … Read more >>

It’s always a bonus to get another one-eyed puzzle in addition to my fortnightly ration in Private Eye. Brummie managed to weave in a mini-theme of a best-selling book and author ACROSS 8 … Read more >>

This is a classic Rufus puzzle, I think. All the hallmarks are there – succinct, witty cluing, clever anagrams [8ac, for instance] superb surfaces … There are rather more anagrams and fewer cryptic … Read more >>

When I opened my paper and saw the name of one of my favourite setters on the puzzle, my heart leapt – only to plummet a few minutes later, before I had even … Read more >>

Very definitely plain sailing, and none the worse for that. Across 1. French town’s brochure revised? Good! (9) CHERBOURG Charade of CHERBOUR, an anagram (‘revised’) of ‘brochure’ + G (‘good’). 6. Make sense … Read more >>