Guardian

This is just the level of difficulty I like on a Thursday – hard to crack into, but ultimately yielding its solutions with some persistence and nothing feeling ‘unfair’. Across 9. GASTROPUB. BUG< … Read more >>

A delightful tribute to the late Albie Fiore by the double-act of Enigmatist and Paul. Naturally I was able to fill in 18ac immediately, but some of the other clues held me up … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram ACROSS 1 HANDEL Sounds like handle (name) … Read more >>

Back to Rufus for Monday morning and a good example of how a puzzle can be perfectly straightforward and still enjoyable and satisfying. We have Rufus’ characteristic wit and elegance in the surfaces, … Read more >>

Solving time: 18:42, almost half of which on three clues. I enjoyed this but got stuck on 16dn (ALFRESCO), 21dn (WHALE) and finally 8dn (FULMINATED). Other than the ‘bard’s friend’ in 21dn there … Read more >>

There’s a mini-theme of improbability going on here, in 14, 18ac, 4dn and 24dn etc. There are one or two rather lame charades, I think, but an entertaining puzzle on the whole, as … Read more >>

Tough going with Araucaria today. I got 22/21 quickly, which led immediately to 15/14 and a couple of others, but still struggled to finish it. There were a few references that I had … Read more >>

Two long anagrams gave me an quick start to a generally straightforward puzzle, but I’m still stumped by some of the wordplay. Edits thanks to comments Across 1 EXPOSE EX POSE 2 MIGHTY … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram What a horrendous day. Last night, lightning … Read more >>

There’s frequently something special about Brendan’s crosswords and this one is no exception: every clue’s construction is of the form where a single letter is included in another word to give the definition. … Read more >>

Solving time: 12:05 The seven answers clued without definition were all types of film: biopic, blaxploitation, horror, blue, western, feature and noir. Once this was cracked I thought this puzzle was probably on … Read more >>

Pressure of work has meant that this blog has been written in rather a rush, so apologies for any errors or typos. This seemed quite tough, but with Pasquale’s usual combination of fairness, … Read more >>

My heart sank somewhat, initially, when I saw a preamble to an Orlando, who can usually be relied on to be straightforward, but soon all became clear as the names of the 60’s … Read more >>

For an Araucaria puzzle, I thought this wasn’t too difficult. Figuring out his wordplay is always excellent fun, and I always learn a few new things. There’s a mini theme of “refusals” in … Read more >>

dd = double definition cd = cryptic definition rev = reversed or reversal ins = insertion cha = charade ha = hidden answer *(fodder) = anagram Quite a benign day really with all … Read more >>