Guardian

One of Rufus’s easier offerings for the most part, with some real beginners’ clues. Look at the first 4 across clues – you have easy examples of the 4 basic clue types: anagram, … Read more >>

Solving time: About 30 mins; two missing, one wrong. I made an absolute pig’s ear of this puzzle. After a slow start I unravelled most of it, but with some very dull moments … Read more >>

Solving time – 17:05 This started out fairly straightforward and I made good progress, thinking I was going to finish inside 10 minutes for a while. Then I got stuck in two places, … Read more >>

Too many cryptic definitions for my taste. The answers I’ve not blogged are probably CDs. Quantum’s best clues here are the short simple clues rather than the CDs. * = anagram < = … Read more >>

A toughie for my first blog – I’ll be busy most of the day so I’m posting this early. I’ve filled in the grid and everything looks more or less right, but I’m … Read more >>

I don’t have a lot of time this morning, so it was convenient that I got most of this quite quickly. Lots of long solutions, with lots of falling, dropping and coming to … Read more >>

Too many cryptic definitions (albeit one or two are rather good) and anagrams. Which means this was a fairly typical Rufus of a Monday morning. Across 9 MO,HAWK – nice clue. Brit docs … Read more >>

Solving time: 18 mins Appropriately for the date, this puzzle (and especially its perimeter) was themed around Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog from the borough of Punxsutawney in Pennsylvania which supposedly predicts the next … Read more >>

I’m putting this short post in place to carry the chat requested by others elsewhere. I, too, would like explanations for a few answers here. I’ll remove this post on request. [Additions made … Read more >>

A pretty easy and pedestrian puzzle. I had to look up the Tuesday ref in 2D and there were a couple of weak clues in my opinion — unless I missed some subtlety. … Read more >>

For me this is a mixed bag from Gordius. There are some fine clues in here an a few I’m not so convinced about. There was a slightly fatty feel to the puzzle. … Read more >>

My first blog and — as luck would have it — it’s the monkey-puzzle man himself. At first, I was regretting that third tequila last night but once the triple espresso kicked in, things started … Read more >>

Another Monday, another Rufus – it’ s starting to become rather a comforting sight. Although I did stare at this puzzle to no good effect for a worrying length of time wondering if I’d … Read more >>

Solving time: Lost, but about 11 mins I think. One wrong (2dn). A mini-theme in this crossword of detectives and their authors, with three pairs plus ‘Sherlock’ at 4dn. I didn’t think this … Read more >>

I always find Enigmatist crosswords difficult, and I’m prepared to accept that may be because of a shortage of horsepower between my ears. But this time I did get there. Lots of great clues … Read more >>