Independent

Apologies for the slightly tardy post – it has been a long and busy week. And so it may just have been me being preoccupied by starting a new job the following day, … Read more >>

This was just a masterpiece of a straight good-old fashioned cryptic crossword puzzle – no themes, ninas, linked clues – just some wonderful surface readings, diversions, and plenty of self-contained ‘stories within clues’. … Read more >>

Great stuff as always from the ever dependable Phi. Pretty tough in places, but all clues as sound as a pound. I can’t see anything hidden in the grid, though its shape suggests … Read more >>

Some excellent clues in a very nice crossword today from Tees. One or two of them I couldn’t understand properly but I suspect that as usual all will be made clear. My apologies … Read more >>

Crosophile reappears to give Dac a rest, only just done one from him in Sunday’s Independent of 3 days ago but I don’t think that’s giving too much away on that one, yesterday … Read more >>

I had to dig deep this morning to complete and blog this one in time, which is not unusual for a Scorpion puzzle or, indeed, for a puzzle using a grid such as … Read more >>

Possibly the weirdest solving experience I’ve ever had.  I blogged a Punk a couple of months ago, and really enjoyed it.  That one was pretty straightforward, but this one … well, tell me … Read more >>

I found this quite a tough puzzle from Poins, but I didn’t help myself by initially entering a couple of wrong answers.  That could be because I decided to tackle it with a … Read more >>

In one of the crossword blog sites I was reading last week I came across a comment from someone who said they enjoyed a specific crossword because the clues had  ‘no triple lutz reversed … Read more >>

Phi has as usual produced a very pleasing crossword, perhaps on the easier side — at any rate I found it to be so, although whether or not a crossword is easy seems … Read more >>

Anarche has stopped running dressed as a bottle for charity for long enough to weave more trickery for the unwary, indeed there’s at least one I just can’t see the wordplay to. I … Read more >>

There was the usual crop of high-quality, carefully crafted clues on offer from Dac this Wednesday morning. As usual, they were as pleasurable to blog as they were to solve. Having said that, … Read more >>

The good thing about regular crossword solving is that, given any puzzle at random by a non-cruciverbalist, you would expect to be able to prove your worth by casually solving one or two … Read more >>

Pleasing puzzle in Quixote’s normal style.      Solving time, 26 mins. * = anagram ACROSS 1   DEMOCRAT     come reversed in drat 5  ST IVES     Port in Cornwall    I’ve after t (time) in SS (steamship) … Read more >>

Quite a mixture of difficulty levels in this puzzle, I thought. Some very straightforward clues, some that took some serious unravelling. I am trying to include links in this blog, but the WiFi … Read more >>