Guardian

A cracking effort from Araucaria, that left me scratching my head for most of my lunchtime today. There’s often debate about what sort of knowledge is acceptable to assume on the part of … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram After Enigmatist’s tough puzzle last week, this … Read more >>

A fun and quite quick puzzle to start the week. 12d and 25a were the troublesome ones for me. Across 1. COMPASS CO = “firm” + M = “a thousand” + PASS = … Read more >>

Solving time: 20 mins plus another couple of days mulling over 13dn and 25ac. I’m afraid I thought this was a poor puzzle. There is a strange theme with the phrase ‘dead-end’ (or, … Read more >>

I guessed the planetary theme almost immediately, knowing that “planet” means “wanderer”, from the fact that the planets move in the sky relative to the so-called “fixed stars”. It’s not a complete set: … Read more >>

Across 1 PENANCE PENCE around AN 5 LAMPREY LAM+PREY 10 SPRY SPY i.e. “mole” around R[esistance] 11 APOTHEOSIS (Sophie ‘as to)* 12 PRESTO PO around REST – a spider is one of the … Read more >>

Apologies for the late post – I’m afraid I woke up late in an inconvenient time zone, don’t have access to a printer, found my online Chambers subscription had run out (and it … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram A very entertaining and at the same … Read more >>

Perhaps aided by a bit more sleep than normal, I found this fairly quick-going but with a few unsatisfying clues. Across 1. IRATE. 1 + R. + A ‘TE’. 4. INDICATE. 1ACTEDIN*. Odd … Read more >>

Solving time: 11½ mins, one mistake (15dn: ‘sagebrass’ for SAGEBRUSH) Paul had a puzzle on Wednesday (21st) which I found very difficult. This felt slightly easier, certainly to get going with, but was … Read more >>

Fairly straightforward for a Friday. Across clue no. here comment here 1 PAGEANT: AGE in PANT (huff and puff) 5 PLONKER: PLONK (wine) + ER (half of beER) 9 ROOST: ROO (Australian animal) … Read more >>

We got through this very fast indeed – I don’t think there’s much that should have caused problems. The surface readings are very nice throughout. Across 8. ACHILLES CHILL in SEA = “tide” … Read more >>

Across 8. MAKE LOVE. M(AKEL(a))OVE. 9. PRISE. “PRIZE”. 10. FISH. (thie)FISH(opeless). 11. BANANA SKIN. BA(NANA)SKIN. Baskin Robbins is a chain of ice cream sellers. 12. STABLE. double def. 14. CHIPMUNK. CHIP + “MONK”.  … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram Quite a challenging set of clues with … Read more >>