Independent

Standing in for the normal blogger and would be delighted to receive explanations on what I’ve missed. It was a very challenging and enjoyable puzzle, with some cracking, devious, clues. Very tough indeed … Read more >>

The usual nice Phi today: he seldom has any clues that shout their brilliance at you, but there are always many very satisfactory ones nevertheless. I’m bewildered by two of them and fully … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. This crossword was pants! Not really – it was excellent of course, but it did take “underwear” as its theme (see 3ac). Entertaining stuff, with … Read more >>

Accessible puzzle from Quixote, solving time 17 mins. * = anagram 4 BO (OT)Y 6 F RE EDOM 8 CON SIDE RED 9 Mungo PARK 10 HANSEL (and Gretel) 11 TARNIS H (in … Read more >>

A very good puzzle for April Fool’s Day by Nimrod.     Very tough, solving time, 66 mins.   There’s a Nina  which I refer to after the clue explanations. * = anagram ACROSS 6 PAUL   … Read more >>

Was it just me being tired from having stayed up late watching The Wire last night, or was some of this quite hard for a Dac puzzle? The middle of the grid didn’t … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def My initial thought on seeing this puzzle was that the theme would be something like the Taming of the Shrew, so I set off with a mental … Read more >>

Quite an easy puzzle from Phi, I thought, getting quite a bit from definitions, verifying wordplay later.    Solving time, 15 mins. * = anagram  < = reversed 1 TIME S H(E)ET 6  STUB   … Read more >>

A fitting theme for a puzzle that appeared the day before 4. A couple of clues make reference to “ladies of tomorrow”, or “ladies celebrated on Sunday”, and there are a number of … Read more >>

I found this pretty tough going, though Thursdays are generally the hardest weekday. I made a flying start with some of the across clues, but then slowed up, mainly because I thought that … Read more >>

Some excellent misdirection in the definition parts in this puzzle. Solving time, 22 mins. * = anagram ACROSS 1 CHEESY Double definition, Leicester being a type of cheese. Clue wording clearly pointing to … Read more >>

Everything typically elegant and natural today. Across 1 FEAT HERB RAINED — One of the signs of a good charade clue is that the long word is split into components that are not … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. I had noticed that number 7,000 was on its way, and wondered what to expect. What we got was a typically strong Virgilius puzzle, with … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, CD=cryptic def I found this a nicely balanced puzzle, challenging without being too difficult and having a good mix of clues. Across 1 Requiescat: (quiet acres)* – quite a … Read more >>

*=anag, []=dropped, <=reversed, hom=homophone, cd=cryptic definition, dd=double definition. What a week for us Independent solvers. I’m a little relieved to have drawn the Friday, all things considered. That said, I felt the pressure, … Read more >>