Guardian

Talk amongst yourselves…

Between a SNAFU with my contract and a chest cold, I actually had some leisure to look at this properly this morning. Just as well – Pasquale is one of the compilers who … Read more >>

Rufus at his finest: an excellent set of misleading and satisfying cryptic definitions and some devious wordplay as well. As per usual Rufus’s surfaces are coherent, sensible and, as a result, often hard … Read more >>

Solving time: 11:40 This puzzle had a theme of 12 double word phrases, where the second word in one phrase was the first in the next. Starting with 9ac, these were BLANK, CARTRIDGE, … Read more >>

A couple of unfamiliar words had me scurrying to the dictionary, e.g. PSITTACOSIS and I’m still not sure about a wordplay or two. Par for the course. Updated based on comments. Across 1 … Read more >>

This is a new setter to me, and I enjoyed the puzzle on the whole. It didn’t take long to do, and, if the week’s puzzles are to get harder as the week … Read more >>

A bit of an American theme, and quite a few container type clues from Paul this week. Not as tricky as Paul can be, but a couple of clues held me up for … Read more >>

Several very easy hidden clues mingled in with some more difficult clues. One word I had to cheat on and look up, another I just couldn’t get despite it being easy, with hindsight! … Read more >>

Short of time to give much explanation here, but the answers were pretty straight I thought. The only ones I had a problem with were SOURDOUGH (it is North American prospector) and I … Read more >>

Solving time: 13:05 A definition/letter-mixture puzzle from Araucaria this week. Please say in the comments if you found this a welcome change or a bit of a chore. Some definitions are given in … Read more >>

Paul’s salute to the ever-inventive British train companies and their feeble excuses for shoddy service. Not as difficult as some Paul crosswords can be, especially once you’ve cracked the theme, but very satisfying. … Read more >>

I saw Eileen’s plea in puzzle G24359 comments and agree with her – this puzzle needs a blog – and made some notes.  Then Real Life got in the way.  Then I saw … Read more >>

A clue or two hinting that the setter is a woman. Which I knew already. I wonder a bit about 16D and I think I’m right about 11D (a first for me recognizing … Read more >>

Straightforward enough except for 26ac which took me ages to sort out and may well be wrong. Across 1 SHAMROCK: SHAM + ROCK 5 ACCORD: ACCORD(ion) losing I and ON, one and on … Read more >>

I managed to solve this puzzle comfortably on the bus back home this morning. It’s a forty minute journey though I spent much of the time looking out of the window at the … Read more >>