Independent

Very much a game of two halves this one: figuratively, in that we completed most of it within twenty minutes, but then spent as long again on the remainder; and also literally, in … Read more >>

More brilliance from Dac. As good a set of clues as I’ve seen in a long while, although he’s stumped me on 15D! Across 1 SEPTET – PT. in SEE + T(enor) 4 … Read more >>

Typical brilliance from Virgilius. At first I thought, after predicting confidently that the long word across was going to be SYMMETRICAL, what’s the big deal? All crosswords are symmetrical. Then I saw it … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism Pleasant Monday crossword from Morph with some cracking clues. It wasn’t too difficult, although it took me a while to get going with it … Read more >>

It’s a while since I blogged a Friday Phi, so either I’m a little rusty or this was quite a tough one. Not having heard of the relevant trilogy didn’t help, although it … Read more >>

I found this hard and took a good afternoon to solve it.  There were a couple of words or phrases I had not come across before, namely CACOETHES SCRIBENDI and PULQUE.  I knew … Read more >>

Apologies, I’ll need to be brief today, so won’t be able to give this the full treatment it deserves. I found this to be a tough but very enjoyable puzzle from Nestor. I … Read more >>

The usual enjoyable bag of tricks from Quixote. A couple of inventive clues stood out for us: 6 down and 17 across. ACROSS 1. KOPECK ‘ok’ backwards, followed by peck ‘a little kiss’ … Read more >>

Not the easiest Dac puzzle, I thought. The explanation of two or three answers still eludes me, but no doubt someone will explain. The two symmetrical pairs of eight-letter answers look significant, but … Read more >>

Enjoyable, themed, puzzle from Tees, solving time 38 mins.       Very impressed with how much themed material was in the grid, without sign of strain with other answers. * = anagram    < = reversed … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def, sp=spoonerism This was one of those puzzles where I spent more time working out the logic behind some of the answers than I did filling … Read more >>

I found this to be one of the hardest Phi puzzles we’ve had in a while, eventually having to give up with 4 clues unsolved. There are a few obscure words in here … Read more >>

How do you refer to your Significant Other? Tyrus reminds us of a few choice expressions with perhaps the notable omission of “She Who Must Be Obeyed”. Across 6 SPOT-ON T[ime] inside SPOON … Read more >>

Another enjoyable, well clued puzzle from Quixote. The south-west corner took longest, for no good reason – just couldn’t think of the right words for a while. H was pleased to see ‘demotic’ … Read more >>

An unusual Thursday appearance for Dac, caused by the jiggling necessary to fit in Virgilius’s St Patrick’s Day crossword on Wednesday, so this must be one of the gentler Thursday offerings; but surely … Read more >>