Guardian

A great one from Paul with a theme of drinks, mostly but not all alcoholic. Nothing too difficult in retrospect, but some of the double definitions took a while to work out until … Read more >>

I’m really getting to like Gordius! In the past, I have found him rather lacking in [my sort of] humour but I thought there were some really witty clues here and I enjoyed … Read more >>

It’s Monday and Rufus starts the week off with a fairly straightforward puzzle, although there are one or two tricky lights. Across 9 CASSANDRA: SAND in anagram of CARS 10 ASCOT: (m)ASCOT going … Read more >>

Solving time: 11:50 A fairly gentle offering from Paul, I thought – only 2dn (FUTILITY) and 9ac (BORING) really held me up in this. My favourite clues were probably 2dn (OMIGOD) and 7/20dn … Read more >>

Not really an overall theme today, but a few movie references and some very enjoyable clues. (X) = inserted (x) = removed) * = anagram “” = homophone < = reversed d.d. = … Read more >>

Seeing Pasquale’s name is a guarantee of soundly-constructed and witty clues, and this was no exception. Although there were a few slight obscurities it yielded eventually, with the NW corner being the most … Read more >>

A nice puzzle by Brendan with all but a few clues linked by the “capital” theme. Plenty of nice surfaces, and quite a few hidden clues. Across 1 PEKING PE KING, and the … Read more >>

There were several laugh out loud moments in this entertaining puzzle from Araucaria, with a number of cleverly inter-connected  clues. Across 7   PRESS ON: PRESS ON[e]: a witty reference to the irritating options  offered … Read more >>

As often happens with Rufus’s puzzles for me, I got about half of these clues very fast and the rest took rather more puzzling. I thought there was lots to enjoy here, with … Read more >>

I don’t know what has happened to Rightback this weekend but something seems to have prevented him from posting a blog so here is a somewhat belated substitute. This ‘alphabetical’ was made a … Read more >>

I found this mostly quite easy (especially in comparison to Arachne’s recent Monday puzzle), though with a few slight obscurities that I needed to check. Several very nice clues where the cryptic structure … Read more >>

Fairly straightforward. You might even say it’s a complete state! Across 7 APPRAISAL: (RA (arist) + IS) in APPAL 8 NIPPY: double definition 9 DRESS CODE: (S (Scotland) + CO (Cobalt)) in DRESDE(n) … Read more >>

We found this rather tough, but with lots of good “A-ha!” moments (e.g. 12a, 14a, 27a, 6d, 21d). There are 10 clues that refer to the theme of drinks and drinking, including the … Read more >>

A welcome return from Brummie, who always entertains. After solving the puzzle, I spent a while staring at the answers, since Brummie often gives us a theme. I thought there might be one … Read more >>

A fairly straightforward puzzle, but with a few clues I wasn’t happy with – some very tortured defs in 12ac, 15ac, 18dn, for instance.  I did like some of the shorter simple clues, … Read more >>