Guardian

Probably my quickest Araucaria solve to date, with several straightforward anagrams and the Keynes reference giving me the bottom half in next to no time. Across 1 BEHOLD EH=”What was that” in BOLD … Read more >>

I’ve mentioned a couple of grumbles below, but overall I thought this was an enjoyable (and mostly quite easy) solve Across 9. IMPEL I = “one” + M = “mile” + PEL[t] = … Read more >>

I must admit I enjoyed this more than I expected when I saw the name of the setter. There were, perhaps, rather a lot of anagrams – some good ones, though,  a couple … Read more >>

Life is good. Last week, I drew The Master and then we all had a fantastic bonanza of John/Jane wedding puzzles for the weekend and today I get to blog Paul, another one … Read more >>

This was slightly harder than the average Rufus, I thought – most of it was straightforward as usual, but the last few answers held me up longer than usual. There were a couple … Read more >>

Solving time: 11 mins This was really fun to solve and included six examples of Spoonerisms, where the initial sounds of a two-word phrase are switched. Most of the other clues were straightforward … Read more >>

As usual, a tough but entertaining and clever puzzle from Enigmatist. I can’t parse a couple of them, I’m afraid, so please help out in the comments below if you understand them. (Resolved … Read more >>

My first blog for four weeks and so, first of all, many thanks to mhl and Gaufrid for standing in for me while I was, firstly, marking exam scripts and then away on … Read more >>

After a long break, Audreus seems to be becoming quite a regular again. This was a fairly typical example of her work – nothing too difficult, apart from an obscure meaning at 21dn, … Read more >>

Once again, I have been royally entertained and tantalised by The Master. He has woven such a rich tapestry of literary references that blogging this puzzle took many times what it took to … Read more >>

The usual bits and pieces from Rufus. A couple of o’er hasty entries slowed us down a bit, but overall this was much as one expects. ACROSS 7. FOR BORE ‘a tedious man’ … Read more >>

A gentler offering than usual for Araucaria, I thought, although some familiarity with Shakespeare’s The Tempest helped since several of its characters appeared as clue answers. There may well be further references that … Read more >>

I thought that this was going to be relatively easy today having entered quite a few answers during the first pass through the clues. However, the remainder of the puzzle proved problematic in … Read more >>

A second posthumous puzzle from Rover, and once again, sadly, not one that I can be enthusiastic about. 4dn stands out as a very nice clue, but the rest is rather 6dn, and … Read more >>

Found this pretty quick for a Chifonie, but well-clued as usual. 20ac made me smile and my only slight niggle was with the repetition of the “O” indicator in 9 and 13. Across … Read more >>