Guardian

Solving time: 11 mins Overall, much more accurately-clued than Araucaria’s Saturday crossword two weeks previously. In fact his puzzles vary so much in style from week to week that sometimes I wonder if … Read more >>

A quick solve for us apart from 12 across, which I don’t understand. Across 7. DANSEUSE Cryptic definition; “Nice girl” is meant to be read as “A girl from Nice”, along with “corps … Read more >>

A delightful puzzle from Orlando, which shouldn’t have caused too many problems on the bus or train and may have elicited curious looks from fellow-passengers at the smiles and ‘ahas’ along the way. … Read more >>

An enjoyable puzzle from Araucaria today that was of the “just right” level of difficulty for me in a daily puzzle, and with not too many extreme liberties taken. The theme is words … Read more >>

The Three Tenors, wherever and whenever they sing, never fail to entertain and enthrall me. Ditto, The Three Dons. Pasquale today offered a wide gamut of devices and tricks that are challenging but … Read more >>

The week starts with Rufus. Exactly what you might expect with a large number of cryptic definitions. Across 1 EJECTS: (r)EJECTS with R right away 5 SHOWCASE: double definition 9 ABOVE ALL: anagram … Read more >>

Solving time: Best part of a week before using references for 4ac and 1dn. Sometimes it all goes wrong; this was such an occasion, and I got totally stuck on two clues, despite … Read more >>

Well, for me, the week’s ending, as it began, on a high note, with a welcome appearance by Enigmatist. There were some lovely clues, as we would expect, but one or two that … Read more >>

As regular readers will know, I (and others) am not a big fan of Gordius, and while there’s nothing particularly inspiring in this puzzle, I didn’t find much to object to either, apart … Read more >>

Got through this one fairly quickly. Noticed on writing it up that the charade pieces for 11ac were all recycled from other clues… Across 1 IN ATTENDANCE =”here”. (ain’t)* + TEN=”five couples” + … Read more >>

A fair-to-middling kind of offering from Paul with some challenging clues as well as some that raised a smile or two especially those cheeky descriptions such as item containing white in 20D. My … Read more >>

A very quick post today, so please accept my apologies for any errors or omissions. It probably goes without saying, given the setter, but this is great stuff – lovely surface readings, fair … Read more >>

Solving time: 10 mins Not too difficult this week but there were several dubious clues in this (e.g. 11ac, 20ac, 1dn, 3dn, 16dn); not Araucaria’s finest, I thought. Music of the day (5dn): … Read more >>