Guardian

Sorry for the delay – I had a veterinary emergency when I came home from work today. The cat had managed to develop an arterial thromboembolism (some sort of blood clot in the … Read more >>

Rufus at his best. Took about 15 minutes, with fewer cryptic definitions than usual, but his skill in that department evident in the ordinary definitions – well concealed, with a high proportion using … Read more >>

Avian theme. 14D (CHAFFINCH) was my way in. I solved this twice. The second time took as long virtually as the first since I’d forgotten most of the birds already. Across 1 PART,RIDGE … Read more >>

This was without doubt the hardest crossword I’ve had to blog, and almost defeated me. It took about 45 minutes, and I resorted to online aids for a couple of the final clues – I … Read more >>

I’ve blogged Quantum 3 or 4 times before, and I think I have been fairly mild with my criticism in each case.  I don’t really enjoy solving a Quantum crossword, especially a waorkaday … Read more >>

No wordplay quibbles but there are a couple of loose definitions that dictionaries probably support but felt a bit unsatisfying while solving (see 15A, 17A, 21D). Two across anagrams got me started here … Read more >>

Fairly standard daily fare, a sprinkling of anagrams, a few stretched definitions for me, but I’ve learnt that it’s risky to cast such aspersions without a dictionary.  Theme? Well, there was a band … Read more >>

Solving time approx. 15 mins. I think this is the second time I’ve blogged an Arachne puzzle on a Monday. As in the last one, the surface readings are all good, and most … Read more >>

Solving time: Forgot to record, but I think I gave up on 17dn after about 15 mins. The bottom left corner was the hardest, if I remember correctly. Some very inventive clues in … Read more >>

Across 1 BESIDE THE POINT – double definition. 9 RI,T in IRAN,T – excellent surface reading. 11 H in (METEOR)* 12 DUN,(GONE)* 15 HOMOPHONE – nothing to do with the answer at 4D, … Read more >>

1A was the best cryptic political comment I’ve seen in a long time. I had to look up 21A and 14A for being too esoteric. Found this overall rather hard but with many … Read more >>

Given the number of black squares in the grid and the lack of difficulty in this puzzle, I was expecting there to be a theme, but, if it’s there, I can’t find it. … Read more >>

Felt a bit Araucarian today – surfaces sacrificed at the altar of clever wordplay. I had to look up SALOPETTE – which I think is contrived (derived from SALOP which I recognized as … Read more >>

A pretty straightforward Monday solve (10 mins-ish), tightly clued and accessible as ever, with quite a few anagrams and lots of cryptic definitions – some very good, others a tad obvious. About half the answers came … Read more >>