Independent

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 >>

As usual a nice puzzle from Dac. I may be getting old and feeble, and the fact that I did it on-screen meant that I had to get the anagrams without writing anything … Read more >>

Superb themed fun puzzle from Virgilius with some really clever clues.   All the acrosses are pairs in one form or another.     Solving time, 20 mins. * = anagram 1 BOO-BOO      Boo twice 4 … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Obviously, this was written a few weeks ago when the ash cloud debacle was at its height. Inexplicably, though, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano doesn’t seem … Read more >>

Much as I usually love drawing the Friday blog and finishing the working week with a nice piece of Phi, I was hoping that the start of the World Cup would mean that … Read more >>

Another Saturday Prize Indy that was surprisingly easy compared to previous experience of both Nestor and  Saturdays.  There has been a run of easier Saturday crosswords lately. After first getting one of the … Read more >>

You’d never have had a blog were it not for the ability to cheat on the Indy website. This crossword wasn’t there at five past midnight, so I did it from the paper … Read more >>

An easier offering this week than last, with the usual good mixture of clue types. Our favourite was 20 across, which gave us a lovely penny-dropping moment on this hungover Sunday. ACROSS 1. … Read more >>

Another really top-quality puzzle from Dac, with some excellent &lit type constructions.   Not too difficult, 26 mins. * = anagram 1 SOCIALIST    SO (thus) CIA (US agency) LIST (index of names)     Great surface … Read more >>

One of my favourite ever crosswords that I’ve had the pleasure of blogging was Radian’s classical music-themed Saturday prize puzzle 7,148, back in September. So I was very pleased to find that today … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism An elegant puzzle with some very good clues, although very much on the easy side. 24 was my favourite clue, although I quite liked … Read more >>

The usual nice cryptic from Phi, with some very good clues as always. One which utterly defeats me, but which people will I’m sure fall over themselves to explain. As for a Nina, the … Read more >>

Quite a hard puzzle as one expects from Tyrus, with a theme exemplified by 8 down (an answer I worked out only quite late on) and some other entries and wording used in … Read more >>