Guardian

A fun puzzle from Rufus – I had a bit of trouble with the bottom-left corner (21a and 24a) but otherwise this was pretty easy and satisfying to solve. Across 1. ORCHESTRA OR … Read more >>

I thought it would be interesting put together some statistics about how many puzzles there were from each Guardian setter in 2009, and how many comments the blogs have attracted on this site. … Read more >>

Solving time: 35 mins, 3 mistakes (ZEND, YAWL and COMPRADOR). This was a tough and enjoyable ‘Araubetical’ with a well-constructed grid and about the right amount of obscurity for a prize puzzle. I … Read more >>

Another very tricky puzzle to finish off the week. The many cross-references and multiple-entry answers made it hard to get started, and even after getting some of the key answers it didn’t get … Read more >>

We get roughly a puzzle a month from Brummie in the Guardian, so I think I end up doing more of his Private Eye puzzles (as Cyclops) overall and it’s good fortune to … Read more >>

An intricately crafted puzzle mini-themed on a subject, something well before my time. Thank goodness for Wikipedia that came to my rescue. Paul, to his credit, clued the themal words most fairly, thereby … Read more >>

It’s Monday. A classic Rufus puzzle. No further preamble necessary. Across 1   CRUMBS: cryptic definition: ‘Crumbs’ and Crikey’ were two favourite expressions of Billy Bunter, the ‘Fat Owl of the Remove’, in the … Read more >>

Solving time: About 8 mins This was fairly straightforward but took me longer than it should have because of the redesigned website. First impressions were not sparkling but I see this has been … Read more >>

Nothing very troublesome from Gordius today. Across 1 TRAFFIC (Craft if)*. Nice &lit 5 SUSTAIN STAIN around US 9 IVY LEAGUE (i.e. vaguely)*, i.e.=”that is” 10 PILOT I=”one” in PLOT 11 LAMP L[arge] … Read more >>

For those of you who have tried to print today’s puzzle and have just got a grey block where the grid should be there is a solution. You need to set your browser so … Read more >>

A very enjoyable crossword from Paul, with nothing too tricky, I think, unless the few themed answers were unfamiliar to you. (They helped a lot in our case.) Across 1. CHOWDER CHOW = … Read more >>

I don’t know how many times I’ve read comments like, ‘How does he [Brendan / Virgilius] keep doing it? I’m always afraid I’m going to miss the theme in a Brendan puzzle but … Read more >>

Another well crafted puzzle themed on P, which I fortuitously happened to cotton on from the very beginning. As usual, The Master led us all on a fun chase … nothing too convoluted … Read more >>

Traditional Monday fare from Rufus here, with the usual generous smattering of cryptic definitions. I don’t remember seeing this grid before, with four consecutive three-letter answers in the downs.         … Read more >>