Guardian

A nice challenge from Araucaria today, with almost entirely Ximenean clueing. I was particularly pleased to be able get the Shakespearian references in 1ac and 9ac without assistance. Key: * = anagram dd … Read more >>

Not a lot of time this morning. 15a, 4d and 19d point to lots of ‘films’. Not sure how the cryptic works with any of them. Across 8 THANKS TO: anagram of THATS … Read more >>

Excellent stuff from Paul today; we made steady progress through this last night and completed it without having to look anything up, so I think the difficulty’s about right. My particular favourite is … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram Surprisingly quite a tame puzzle for a … Read more >>

An exemplary Monday puzzle – no odd constructions but still enough to exercise the grey matter on the commute. Across 8. ON THE HOP. double definition 9. SPEARS. S.(PEAR)S. 10. TEMPTS. TE(MP)ST*. 11. … Read more >>

Solving time: 7 mins This was my fastest solve of a Saturday puzzle for a while, so must have been easier than usual, even for a non-Araucaria week. Only 20dn (REMARK) caused any … Read more >>

I found this quite tough going,  both solving and parsing, and was pleased to have finished without recourse to the ‘cheat’  button – but irritated to have been completely beaten by the explanation … Read more >>

We enjoyed this and just missed out 8 down, so it’s probably a good difficulty level for a daily puzzle. I particularly liked the surface readings of 9a, 10a, 3d and 12a. Update: … Read more >>

An interesting Araucaria today, the clues not being particularly fiendish in their construction but requiring a fairly wide vocabulary (or perhaps today just happened to hit the weak spots in my knowledge). Across … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram As usual, the Don entertains, titillates and … Read more >>

Back to traditional Monday fare with Rufus. Ernjoyable and pretty easy going, though with a couple of words that are perhaps slightly obscure. I have one or two minor quibbles, noted below. Key: … Read more >>

Solving time: about 15 mins A while ago I was playing Articulate! when the name Anton Chekhov came up. This was described to my team as “a Russian chess player”. Easy, we thought. … Read more >>

Not too tricky for a Gordius puzzle, but with a few that needed some time to work out the wordplay. [Links to the puzzle as HTML, PDF and Java Applet] Across 1. LANCELOT … Read more >>

Quite a challenge today, mainly due to the problems with getting started in such an interlocking grid.  Once 15dn was cracked the rest became easier, however. Across 7. SCARLET. A reference to Will … Read more >>

I found this mostly very easy, with just a few clues preventing a complete walkover. I have quibbles about 12ac, 18ac and 3dn, but generally it was all pretty sound, if not terribly … Read more >>