Guardian

A pretty tough one this, took a good half hour and left me in doubt about the wordplay of two clues, including the main theme-word. But I think I’m there now. I thought … Read more >>

Solving time: 12 minutes.  Solving a Chifonie puzzle often seems to me like a labour of love.  Nice when you finish, but you don’t get the feeling of accomplishment that you do with … Read more >>

Solving time 10:07 Sorry for the lateness of the post, but I’ve been away from the computer all day and only just got round to solving it. Typical Rufus with lots of cryptic … Read more >>

I’m a bit short of time today so this will be a less detailed than usual entry. Apologies in advance etc… Across 1 LITTLE TOE – I put in LITTLE PIG at first, … Read more >>

As always an intellectual treat to solve a Paul puzzle — and as usual he pushes the Ximenean envelope — typically from the outside, but always gratifyingly — e.g. 17D. A couple of … Read more >>

 …. hardly ! It’s an Araucaria after all. Interim version of the solutions – feel free to help me out with the left side of the puzzle – managed to crack the RHS … Read more >>

I got about half-way through before I spotted this puzzle’s usp – every clue refers to horses, except for 18 down whose answer contains the word. This means some ingenious and intricate wordplay, … Read more >>

Greetings and apologies for the delay. While in hospital recently I managed to have a serious problem with my laptop which meant that my PC Doctor had to reformat the hard disk and … Read more >>

Solving time: 14:58 Another well-constructed alphabetical jigsaw from Araucaria. When I solved his last one I decided afterwards that I should have tried to fit answers into the grid more quickly, so I … Read more >>

Not having been lucky enough to get a crossword to solve for a while I was slightly disappointed that this one was so undemanding. I got through it in under 8 minutes. Still … Read more >>

A good puzzle to learn a few new words via clear wordplay (e.g. SATINY, ASGARD, COLUMBA). One unusual river (AMUR) and an unfamiliar actress (ANNA NEAGLE) and a couple of other more familiar … Read more >>

Apologies if you checked in earlier – a work crisis of Biblical proportions had wiped out my leisure time and my solution was sparse. Across  12 KENTISH = (THESKIN)* 16 A-TT-OR-NEY GENERAL – … Read more >>

A gentle start to the week as ever. Most of the clues are pretty straightforward, so I’ve only given a few explanations – more can be supplied on request. Across: 1. GRAFTS. Double … Read more >>

Solving time: 17:58 About the last 10 minutes were spent on two pairs: 16ac/18dn and 19ac/20dn. The first I sorted out once I accepted that 16ac was an &lit (and realised that 24ac … Read more >>