Independent

This puzzle made a nice coincidental side dish for Stephen Fry’s excellent program (3 days to watch as I write this, if you missed it) on Wagner. Klingsor is an evil magician in … Read more >>

Blimmin’ ‘eck this were tough. We limped to just short of the finishing line, failing to get 12 across and 11 down – comments welcome as ever. Didn’t enjoy this as much as … Read more >>

I found this one really quite challenging for a Wednesday, but there were some very good clues in there, and some impressive anagrams. *=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Across 1 … Read more >>

A typically brilliant puzzle from the master of the themed daily, cleverly using the idea of multiple word ‘see x‘ grid entries as the basis for some diocesan double definition deception. This exposed … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism A moderately challenging puzzle by Hypnos. There were no real stand-out clues for me but everything was well constructed. One or two of the … Read more >>

Good stuff as ever from Phi, and we have a pangram to boot. I was frustratingly defeated by the final two clues though! Across 7 BELLOC – (Alexander Graham) BELL + CO> rev. … Read more >>

Cursory research suggests Yorick to be a new setter for us to lock horns with, though I say that with some caution as we’ve seen familiar setters use unfamiliar pseudonyms in the past. … Read more >>

Whilst I used to be pretty well intimidated by Scorpion puzzles, these days I tend to enjoy them a great deal. This was the expected combination of a fairly stiff challenge and moments … Read more >>

Well, this will be appearing on Sloggers and Betters day, so we’re looking forward to putting faces to pseudonyms. Did this relatively quickly, apart from 1 down, which we didn’t figure out until … Read more >>

The usual excellent puzzle from Dac, quite easy to start but nmsindy’s unfamiliarity with films and dogs  slowed me up a bit at the end, solving time 23 mins. Many thanks to Ali … Read more >>

Well thank goodness for the cheat facility on the website. Without it I’d never have completed this: all the clues contain the name of some literary work, and often they are very clever, … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Just when you thought the politicking was all over, Eimi pops up with this themed puzzle to celebrate (if that’s the right word) the … Read more >>

A very throughly themed puzzle for us today, based around characters in the works of 5ac. My own knowledge here is deeply lacking, which was a significant obstacle, though a good number are … Read more >>

The last Bannsider puzzle I blogged had a theme based on the rock group Kasabian.   I’ve looked at diagonals and unches, and I can’t see any obvious theme in this puzzle, but I … Read more >>

Seems to have been a while since I blogged a Nimrod, but I always find his puzzles a good, fun challenge. I was glad of the mini Iron Man theme and some long … Read more >>