Independent

We were pleased to see that it was Phi again in his regular Friday slot. As usual, smooth surface readings and some tricky misdirections, especially in 8a and 25a. A really enjoyable puzzle … Read more >>

My Thursday slot often presents me with a puzzle by Nestor and today was one such day. For me at least, this puzzle fell into place more easily than some earlier Nestor puzzles … Read more >>

This looks like a fairly standard crossword from Crosophile.  The clues are not too difficult, the wordplay is not too complex and the vocabulary of the entries comprises words I would expect to … Read more >>

A quite excellent crossword from Anax. He seems to be a frequent contributor to the Independent (or perhaps it’s just that he always seems to get me) and although his crosswords are on the … Read more >>

A puzzle which I enjoyed, solving time 32 mins.   I found the top half very easy but the bottom half far more difficult.   Mordred often has themes/Ninas, sometimes quite subtle ones.  … Read more >>

This was a tour de force from Radian, with about as much thematic material as you could hope for. Having solved the puzzle mid-week, the significance of the date of publication was lost … Read more >>

A nice ‘straightforward’ puzzle here from Monk, with no obvious thematic links or complications, but some lovely surface readings, especially the two long across clues. I originally found myself wondering if this was ‘difficult’ enough … Read more >>

It’s Friday, so it’s a puzzle by Phi, as you might expect. I found this one tougher than the average Phi crossword overall, despite filling in 1A and 1D instantly and thinking it … Read more >>

Tees has given us a puzzle, mainly populated with well known words, although the main theme did generate one slightly obscure phrase (to me, at least) that was fairly easily deducible from the … Read more >>

As usual a thoroughly satisfactory crossword from Dac; indeed ‘satisfactory’ is to damn with faint praise. It is of course far more than satisfactory, and as always the surfaces are smooth and shiny. … Read more >>

A bit of a mixed bag today we feel from Scorpion. We deduced the theme fairly early on and thought that we would have to resort to the internet to work out some … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism A fairly standard Quixote with some nice clues. As a sceptic, I rather liked 13 down.  Across 1 Trouble Spots: Tots around Roubles + … Read more >>

The third Sunday Raich I’ve drawn on the trot, I think, so it seems the 152 calendar is somewhat in sync with that of the IoS. No complaints at all from me, as … Read more >>

Someone once asked us if being a blogger took the pleasure out of completing the puzzles. Our answer was a resounding …. “No!” Today was definitely one of the occasions when our faces … Read more >>

If it’s Friday it’s usually Phi and so it is today.       I found this a bit tougher than some Phis that I have solved recently, but the parsing was very … Read more >>