Independent

This was my first attempt at blogging an Anax puzzle, and given how challenging I always find his puzzles, panic immediately set in: while under normal circumstances I would expect to get at … Read more >>

More staggeringly good stuff from Dac. You could take pretty much every single clue here and read it as a perfectly sound, elegant, standalone sentence. Some brilliant anagrams too, 7D being may pick … Read more >>

A good crossword today from Math, themed about something that is mentioned after a polite gap. This is to do with the book Peter Pan, by J.M. Barrie. I am not that familiar … Read more >>

It was something of a surprise to see Phi on a Monday, Eimi must have something interesting lined up for April 1st. A relatively easy, but pleasant, start to the week with, so … Read more >>

Another entertaining Sunday puzzle from The Don ACROSS 1 DEPARTMENT Cha of DEPART (leave) MEN (fellows) T (time) 9 STET Ins of T (last letter of text) in SET (put) In proof-reading, a … Read more >>

I was able to fill the grid on the Saturday the puzzle appeared but this was a puzzle that I kept returning to during the week, mainly to try and understand the wordplay … Read more >>

Despite the fact that I seem to have blogged a lot of Phi puzzles recently, he can still really put me through my paces, and that he did this very morning. It took … Read more >>

Two tricky ones on the trot for me. I thought this was every bit as tough as last Friday’s Red Nose Day offering, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t need … Read more >>

Nothing special from Dac today. Normally when one says this one means that it is mediocre, with nothing remarkably good about it. In this case it simply means that the crossword is well up … Read more >>

It’s Tuesday, it’s the Independent so it must be theme day. Well if there is one I can’t see it, seems to be a vanilla crossword. Mordred returns to test us today and … Read more >>

Some very pleasing clues in what, I think, is Crosophile’s second Indy appearance, solving time 36 mins. No Nina/theme that I have spotted but very happy to be put right if I’ve missed … Read more >>

A nice round number this week, and a nicely-rounded puzzle from Quixote to complement it. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 HENRY THE FIRST – (FRESH ENTRY HIT)*. 8 … Read more >>

Drawing a Scorpion on a blogging day is always a little daunting, and this was a thorough workout. Many of this week’s entries are towns on or near the River Thames. It will … Read more >>

Well I found this pretty darn tough. Most of the acrosses went in fairly easily, but the low-numbered downs were much harder and required some liberal use of the online Reveal button! And … Read more >>

A breathtaking achievement from Anax. The vast majority of the clues have a surface that refers to the same thing, yet there is no strain and they all work quite naturally. This kind … Read more >>