Independent

A new setter, I think, and a welcome one. This was a very enjoyable crossword with some excellent witty cluing including a few that might not appeal to Ximenean purists. Morph got a … Read more >>

There was a lot to admire in this puzzle but I can’t say that I enjoyed it that much. I found it a bit of slog and I filled in too many (for … Read more >>

A trickier than usual puzzle from Phi, which is to be expected for a Saturday. A few words I didn’t know but the wordplay is as fair ever so they weren’t too tricky … Read more >>

A nice puzzle from Mr Friday-but-also-occasionally-Saturday. Across 1 HR in COME – “on the contrary” here indicates that you should do the reverse of what is indicated by the wordplay. Nice clue, reads … Read more >>

Sometimes you can be lucky with a puzzle – the words are familiar or you quickly see how most things work and go through it fast. This happened me with this one to … Read more >>

No major problems with this, which had some clever ideas. Solving time:    12 mins (fast for me)  * =  anagram ACROSS 1  BUCK    Double definition 11 SHAM (BL) E      BL was British Leyland 12 Martin … Read more >>

This was a gentle introduction to a Wednesday, mainly because I was able to solve the four longer entries very quickly, thus giving me lots of checked letters. Solving time – about 10 … Read more >>

Having just returned from a trip working away I thought I had remembered which puzzle I was meant to be blogging today. Once I got to the newsagent’s I had doubts and decided … Read more >>

Listener solvers will recognise the pseudonym but I think this is the first Glow-worm puzzle to appear in the Independent since we started this blog. I found it pretty easy but good fun … Read more >>

Solving time: 30 minutes More ingenious clues from Nestor here, making a puzzle I found very hard – I suspect others who struggled more than me on other Nestors will have beaten me … Read more >>

As with my last review of a Nimrod puzzle there were a few clues in this that I didn’t understand so I’m obviously still having problems tuning in. To be fair, I don’t … Read more >>

I found this one fairly straightforward. Solving time: 14 mins * = anagram ACROSS 5 TEMP O RISE 7 CROW D Murder is a collective word for crows. 10 ANNE LI (51) DAN … Read more >>

This is Punk’s third puzzle in the Indy.     He’s Paul in the Guardian, who I’ve heard praised a lot, but he’s said to be hard, and he also sets in the Times.      So I approached … Read more >>

We’re looking for another Independent crossword solver to join our team. You’ll need to be able to post once a week (on any weekday as we have a rota which changes each week) … Read more >>

Solving time: 7:35 A fairly standard offering from Dac today: mostly straightforward clue constructions with a couple of more obscure answers/names and a bit of licence with link words. Is there a political … Read more >>