Independent

Our first blog as husband and wife, completed in true Handel style, with a pint of ale in Stockwell’s uncharacteristically sophisticated pub The Canton Arms. ACROSS 4. HE(LP)ED 7. splenDID ACT I Contrived … Read more >>

Always a pleasure to tackle a Wednesday Dac. I made pretty swift progress through this, though with a few down clues, such as 1 and 13 taking longer than I should admit. 6dn … Read more >>

Man, this was good! A very impressive grid construction by Virgilius, in which all bar 7 entries contain MAN, and the remaining 7 all have MAN in the clue. I spotted the theme … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Apart from 14 across, I thought this was slightly more restrained than some Punk puzzles but had a nice mix of dictionary words and … Read more >>

Always have confidence with Phi that I will get there, this puzzle was no exception, solving time 23 mins. V enjoyable as always. * = anagram ACROSS 1 WIDE-ANGLE LENS    (leading)* EL (the … Read more >>

I had just been thinking we must be due for a Saturday Anax, and here we are. I wonder if being able to predict setters several weeks running is an early sign of … Read more >>

This seemed like a bit of a classic. Unfortunately work issues and inopportunely-timed fire drills meant I couldn’t really give it the attention it deserved, and had to cheat relentlessly. There’s some great … Read more >>

Back on the IoS beat for 1 week as Handel’s gone to France.    I found this an extremely easy puzzle, solving time 11 mins. * = anagram ACROSS 1 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM    … Read more >>

Dac’s puzzles are always a pleasure, never a chore. That said, this definitely seemed tougher than usual and I eventually had to admit defeat with a few answers. Ain’t nothing wrong with any … Read more >>

A very nice offering from Radian. I’m a bit unsure about one or two of the clues, either because I simply don’t understand them or because I have my own doubts about them. … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism The web site is still showing Friday’s puzzle – not sure if this is an error or the beginning of a new policy under … Read more >>

An enjoyable and fairly challenging Friday Phi. The grid seemed to fill from the bottom up for me, and I was perhaps held up by some unfamiliar terms, for example at 15ac and … Read more >>

My most recent Inquisitor blog was a puzzle by Phi, as is this.  I said in the Inquisitor blog that I enjoy Phi’s cluing.  It is unambiguous and often very clever. I got … Read more >>

Thursdays are never particularly easy in the Indy and, after an initial run through of the clues on this one, I thought I’d be relying heavily on the online cheat facility by the … Read more >>

A pleasant offering this week, very much at the easier end of the scale, we felt. 8dn (pastern) was the only real stumbling block, mainly because we struggled to get ‘postern’ out of … Read more >>