Guardian

A fun puzzle from Rufus, with lots of anagrams and cryptic definitions. Across 1. CACKLE Cryptic definition: to “cut the cackle” is to stop talking 4. MASTHEAD AM reversed + SAD = “unhappy” … Read more >>

Solving time: 12 mins Pasquale is one of the most Ximenean of The Guardian’s setters (i.e. his clues generally make good cryptic sense) which usually means a fast solve. This wasn’t the case … Read more >>

Pretty easy-going stuff from Chifonie here, with several rather obvious anagrams to get started with. It was enjoyable enough, though with nothing much to grab the attention, except I thought the surface reading … Read more >>

A themed puzzle from Brendan today with a good mix of enjoyable, though not too demanding, clues. The theme was indicated by the middle row (15 & 17ac) and all the other across … Read more >>

A fun puzzle with Paul’s trademark dodginess evident in a few clues. Annoyingly, I can’t quite see 24a…. Across 8. VUVUZELA (V V [tiresom]E A ZULU)*; I like “the blasted thing?” as the … Read more >>

Phew! What a tough puzzle with hard boiled eggs dressed with pepper sauce. Without Google and Wikipedia, I would not have completed this blog. Otherwise, an entertaining and fair challenge. ACROSS 1 SUBSOIL … Read more >>

A typically straightforward Rufus, with the usual generous sprinkling of double and cryptic definitions and anagrams, with some nice touches. Nothing too controversial, I think. Across 1 CROESUS: anagram of SOURCES: the wealthy … Read more >>

I know that rightback has been having Internet access problems recently so presumably this accounts for his absence. My apologies for not noticing the lack of a post earlier but I have been … Read more >>

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 >>