Independent

I found this much harder than usual because of some items in the top half of the grid that were new to me and a silly mistake with 6 across which meant I … Read more >>

Top quality puzzle from Dac, great variety, subtlety and no loose ends.  Solving time, 28 mins. * = anagram  < = reversed 1 TO PIC   “pick”   ‘to’ appearing as itself in the wordplay … Read more >>

Phew! I think that was about as difficult a crossword as I’ve ever done. After nearly an hour less than half of it was completed, so I resigned myself to the full panoply … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def Doing the Monday blog, I seem to get a disproportionate number of tough puzzles and this was no exception. There was an ice-skating related NINA … Read more >>

An interesting solve. Having got the first 3 down answers immediately, I was convinced that there was probably going to be a perimeter message reading ‘HAVE….’. It wasn’t until I got WOODSTOCK and … Read more >>

This puzzle was difficult but entertaining, with themewords at three evels – 23D GOON, the three Goons. at 13, 19, 16D, and characters associated with them at 15, 6 & 2, and 16A … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. A surprise Thursday Phi, not that I’m complaining, and it seems that many happy returns may be in order, given the Nina across the first … Read more >>

Solving time, 15 mins, so fairly easy. * = anagram ACROSS 1/12 CALL OF THE WILD   Book by the American writer Jack London 4 CU TS OUT    Cu = Copper (stout)* 9 ROUGH-HEWN   … Read more >>

The usual high-class Dac puzzle, with as always a succession of natural and deceptively simple surfaces. Across 1 SNOWDRIFTS — (winds frost)* — frost? I suppose in the sense that snow itself is caused by a … Read more >>

An incredible puzzle – absolutely brilliant.   In line with 14 across EVERY across solution  had the name of a tree within the word as an internal part.   The clues are, as always from … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def, DD=double def I got most of this done fairly quickly, but then got stuck on 1,2,10,17 and 21. Most of these involved obscure or unusual words. There … Read more >>

Before I solved 11ac it was hard to cope with all those clues that referred to it, but fairly soon that was all right, and there were no terribly obscure 11s. Although most … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. Nestor’s puzzles are always good, and I doubt that this was an exception, but for some reason I couldn’t really get any momentum going here. … Read more >>

Unusual puzzle. Got almost nothing on first run through. Then with three crossing letters saw what 8 was likely to be. After that made quite good progress, until getting badly stuck on 9. … Read more >>

Solving time, 22 mins * = anagram 1 PAWN BROKE R & lit My last answer and my favourite clue 6 (D)(AVID) 9 ASPIRES Dreaming spires of Oxford 10 TO WARDS 13 DISORDERLINESS … Read more >>