Guardian

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 >>

Some typical Araucaria fare today which resulted in quite a few ticks on my copy of the puzzle (1ac, 13ac, 3dn, 8dn and 15dn had the largest ones). I struggled trying to parse … Read more >>

This is the fourth crossword by Crucible for the Guardian, as far as I can tell. (This setter more frequently appears as Radian in the Independent.) There are plenty of clever (and tricky … Read more >>

A  puzzle unremarkable except for some very obscure (defined as when I have to google long and hard) references to William Shakespeare’s Last Will & Testament (http://home.att.net/~mleary/shakwill.htm) and also the position of the … Read more >>

A delightful festive offering from Rufus – something of a tour de force – which is not too taxing but provides a few smiles, or even chuckles, along the way. Across 1   RECIPES: … Read more >>

Solving time: 12 mins I have to take my hat off to Shed for this: most of the puzzle was straightforward (and well-clued) but three answers (MORTAR, SCARFACE and CRIMEA) had me truly … Read more >>

diagacht has web access problems today but has supplied the following analysis without a preamble. Across 8 CALABASH: A LAB (a little dog) in CASH (rhino) 9 HARTE: ART in HE (not sure … Read more >>