Independent

I shouldn’t have left such a big glass of sherry out for Père Noël last evening. He’s brought me a puzzle to blog on Christmas Day. What’s occurring? I guess that since the … Read more >>

Rodriguez has set this week’s Thursday puzzle. It would be a shame if solvers were too busy getting ready for Christmas to find time to solve what, in my humble opinion, is a … Read more >>

Gila fills the Wednesday Independent slot this week.       Terminology in wordplay construction should warrant an academic treatise.  Today we had ‘frequently‘ in the clue for 1 across and ‘occasionally‘ in … Read more >>

It’s not unknown for Tees to provide the Monday puzzle in the Independent. He is on his usual good form with this offering. Abbreviations cd cryptic definition dd double definition cad clue as … Read more >>

Thank you to Shabbo.  Definitions are underlined in the clues. Across 1. Nice here in secretive island (6) SICILY : ICI(“here” in the language of Nice, France) contained in(in) SLY(secretive/sneaky). Defn: … in … Read more >>

Serpent slides into today’s Saturday slot with some sort of slippery puzzle. Certainly slippery for me.  Several clues had me foxed for a long time.  And there are still a few for which … Read more >>

It is Friday today and it falls to Phi once again to complete this latest cycle of mid-week puzzles. I apologise for the late posting, the product of a hectic pre-Christmas schedule at … Read more >>

We have a puzzle from Dutch       I think there is a slight political theme in the clues with reference to Liz Truss, French mismanagement, trickle-down [economics], Tory U-turn.  Possibly gagging … Read more >>