Guardian

The Chinese character for double happiness would have been appropriate to headline today’s entry … for the second week running, I got to blog The Master and what a lovely experience. Some new … Read more >>

A typical Monday Rufus, with no difficulties apart from the obscure word at 24dn. The usual smattering of cryptic definitions, none of which particularly grabbed me, but there are two nice &lits at … Read more >>

Solving time: 10 mins As usual with Brummie I had a slow start on this but then got moving once I had some checking letters. A few bits of looseness here and there … Read more >>

A mixed puzzle, which unfortunately exemplifies why recently I’ve only been doing puzzles from my favourite setters when they come up in the Guardian – there are some excellent clues, but enough dodgy … Read more >>

I’ve been very fortunate today – one of my favourite setters, who did not disappoint, giving us a pleasant literary theme, that was not too dominant, with some deft interlinking and flawless cluing, … Read more >>

Gordius is not one of my favouruite setters, and this puzzle has done nothing to change my opinion. There’s nothing seriously wrong with it, I suppose, but just a few clues that have … Read more >>

Araucaria, as usual, combines a great sense of humour with his enigmatic style of clueing. I particularly like his well-disguised definitions such as playgirl for Cressida and Great king for Alexander. Very challenging … Read more >>

I enjoyed this start to the week. It is all that you might expect from Rufus with the usual imaginative cryptic definitions. Across 8 RAW-BONED: RAW (uncooked) + BONED (filleted) 9 EERIE: EER … Read more >>

Happy New Year, everyone! If I were one for New Year resolutions, one of them might have been ‘I will try to like Rover crosswords more’.  I know I’ve used the term ‘mixed … Read more >>

Solving time: about an hour with four mistakes (PROUDHON at 23ac, NKRUMAH at 25ac, CRO-MAGNON at 18dn and HYANNIS at 40dn) The theme here was people who had connections with dates which are … Read more >>

A fine end to the Guardian Crossword year with this tricky, clever and amusing puzzle from Paul. The “sums” in the first four across clues are particularly ingenious, but there’s lots more to … Read more >>

There had to be at least one no-show over the festive period! He missed a very good puzzle. Some excellent clues and a theme of Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street … Read more >>

What a well-disguised theme which I did not unravel until I have practically solved all the clues. Once that unfolded, everything started to make sense. Very entertaining effort from Don. ACROSS 9 OBSERVANT … Read more >>

The usual excellent Monday crossword from Rufus – a few somewhat tricky clues, I thought, and lovely surface readings throughout. I hope everyone had an excellent Christmas. (I’m afraid I won’t be able … Read more >>