Guardian

After two weeks away from the UK with no daily crosswords I found this one a real struggle after the halfway mark. A few obscure words and some weak devices left me having … Read more >>

Solving time – about 7 mins I counted 11 cryptic definitions and 5 double definitions in this puzzle, which seems a bit excessive – and makes it very easy if your brain’s working … Read more >>

A top-notch puzzle from a setter that, in my opinion, does not appear often enough in the Guardian. Across 1 CREW,TUC(k)< – nicely misleading clue to start things off. 5 BUCOLIC – “bee … Read more >>

A couple of tougher clues, but a pretty standard puzzle really. The bottom right corner held out longest, helped by a typo in 18 down – ell for eel (see below). Across: 1. … Read more >>

We had an excellent night out in London last night with bloggers from here and Pete Biddlecombe’s Times for the Times blog, Tony Sever (RTC2) and a few setters too. A possible side-effect … Read more >>

For early birds, the online version of today’s puzzle provided the solver with a challenge – “Guess the Setter”. The setter’s name didn’t appear in the crossword heading, however it did appear in … Read more >>

A literary feast with clever use of grid geometry. I was helped by incidentally having a copy of “The New Yorker” next to me with the name JULIAN BARNES (1A, 4A) on the … Read more >>

I did the Times2 Concise today which is why “unfaulty” is on my mind. As per usual, I find Rufus’s style to be clean, with good surfaces and not very complicated wordplay. I … Read more >>

Solving time 13:30 Quite tricky this one – partly because of 22,11,12 which I didn’t get until many checking letters were in place – “C _ C _ / N _ _ _ … Read more >>

An appropriately knotty puzzle that left me defeated by two clues, offers welcome. A good range of treatments, with several homophonic puns, a nice spoonerism and a punctutation mark as well as the … Read more >>

Solving time 16:10 Conan Doyle must be second only to Shakespeare in having his work used in thematic crosswords. This one contains four 15-letter Sherlock Holmes stories. I didn’t spot the theme right … Read more >>

Rover has presented us with a good mix of clues, many of which use clever wordplay. I solved this crossword very quickly (less than five minutes), but didn’t always know at first reading … Read more >>

Following yesterday’s puzzle by Audreus, we are today presented by one compiled by Audreus’s son. This was a similar kind of challenge, with a few unusual words which were attainable through working out … Read more >>

I think this is the first time we’ve encountered Audreus – at least lately. Or at least first time I have on a Monday which is typically Rufus’s slot. I found myself filling … Read more >>

I managed to finish this but there are a number of answers that I still don’t fully understand. We usually only see this type of grid/theme combo from Brendan so it’s good to … Read more >>