Guardian

Found this hard for Audreus – who I’ve blogged a couple of times in the past. Had to resort to the dictionary to solve the anagram at 7D which looked awfully unlikely in … Read more >>

A change of pace after yesterday’s Paul brainbuster. It still required two coffees, Mrs Stan and Crossword Buddy (http://www.loquax.co.uk/puzzles/) to complete however, which probably says more about the state of my mind than the … Read more >>

I started slowly, and didn’t feel in tune with the puzzle at all, maybe it was the bruising effect of trying to solve Saturday’s twin puzzles……. Across 9 URTICARIA Often references to rash … Read more >>

Sorry for the late post.  Don’t have a lot to say about this puzzle.  Mostly fair, some good surfaces, the usual smattering of cryptic definitions that Rufus likes to use. I’m not convinced … Read more >>

Solving time: 11:50 Having seen the thematic cross-referencing I looked at, and solved, 17ac (TUBING) straight away, so should really have been quicker than this; slowness on two of the three long thematic … Read more >>

This was quite tough, and I had to give up after I’d done about 75% of it.  When I got home from work, I attaked the NW corner, and eventually finished after more … Read more >>

Solving time 5:44 That was probably the easiest crossword I’ve ever done in the Guardian. Probably the only tricky word was 19ac, but it was an expression I knew from somewhere, so no … Read more >>

I’m indebted to one of our regular commenters – stan – for this blog as we had a bit of a mix up this week and I assigned a puzzle to a blogger … Read more >>

My Sheffield education was provided to me by the movie “The Full Monty” and the occasional Eurosport broadcast of an endless snooker match at The Crucible. Oh yes there are a couple of … Read more >>

Across 1 BAY RUM anagram of may rub. In the old days barbers would offer it as an after shave , posh barbers still do. It’s a distillate from Rum and the leaves … Read more >>

Solving time: 9:29 A chocolate theme this week, with four examples of ‘centres’, i.e. the gooey bits in the middle. Overall probably a bit easier than usual for Paul. * = anagram, “X” … Read more >>

Not a cross-reference in sight nor a long anagram. Was this really Araucaria? I can’t even detect a theme of sorts. Now that I’ve said this, will someone prove me wrong? Across 1 … Read more >>

 It was mostly quite easy, but with a fiendish top right corner that held me up for ages, and I messed up on two clues early on, which didn’t help. Only finished properly … Read more >>

Well, this wasn’t too difficult at all, much to my surprise. I forgot to set the timer going, but I solved it in around 15 or 16 minutes. There were still some tricky … Read more >>

This didn’t take me very long, and was short on elation in the solving. Across 9 C EASE F IRE C for constant, ire is anger, ease is to moderate and f for … Read more >>