Quiptic 597/Nutmeg
Called off the bench by Gaufrid as substitute blogger. I suspect the difficulty is that the Guardian website is still showing last week’s puzzle. Anyway, if anyone does access the crossword, then this … Read more >>
Independent 7651 / Nestor
A generally straightforward puzzle though I needed on-line assistance to work out part of the parsing in 6dn and 14ac had me completely beaten but I think I have now worked out the … Read more >>
Guardian 25,305 / Rufus
As I am double booked with another commitment early this morning, I was a bit worried that Easter Monday was going to produce a Guardian humdinger with a double grid and a complex … Read more >>
Private Eye/Cyclops 441 – Escape kettle
There’s always a bit of fun to be found in the Eye, and the crossword is the icing on the cake in the back pages. This puzzle was in the usual style and … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1104
Another tough call this week from the prince of the fallen angels Across 1 Painter’s coloured in nonsense BOSCH C in BOSH 6 Newspaper’s to follow the crowd RAGTAG RAG+TAG … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1105 by Raich
I have always found Quixote to be scrupulously fair and Ximenean so when I approached this first non-Quixote puzzle in this series, I was filled with a bit of trepidation. My fear, alas, … Read more >>
Azed 2029
I finished about three-quarters of this quite quickly and without aids, but finishing it off was a bit more of a struggle. As usual I had to do quite a lot of Chambers-trawling … Read more >>
Everyman crossword No 3,368
This did not strike me as a top-notch Everyman. There are several simple charades where the answer is two words (or one word articulating naturally into two parts), and the wordplay just defines … Read more >>
Independent 7,644 by Tyrus (Saturday Prize Puzzle, 16/04/11)
A strange one this. Certainly very tough, and I found it hard to get any momentum going. Spotting the theme late didn’t help, of course. In fact, there are elements of it that … Read more >>
Guardian Prize puzzle 25,298 by Paul
Guardian Prize Puzzle 25,298 by Paul. I find Paul’s style becoming more and more like Araucaria as the time goes on, though thankfully without some of Araucaria’s idiosyncrasies. While writing this blog I initially … Read more >>
Independent 7,649 / Phi
Solving today’s crossword has made a not insignificant contribution to my vocabulary, both for new words in the language (such as at 6 and 15) and for words which have doubtless been around … Read more >>
Guardian 25,303 / Orlando
I didn’t know quite what to expect today, after a roller-coaster of a week. An Orlando puzzle is always welcome and this was no disappointment – nothing too taxing but a good variety … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations 962: Depicting the South by Kruger
A fairly straightforward puzzle this week, certainly one of Kruger’s easier ones … perhaps to help us meet the one day earlier deadline. What’s more, no extra letters, words or misprints to worry … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,674 / Bradman
Unusually scant annotation required for a Bradman puzzle, I felt; with most of the wordplay being nifty rather than nefarious. A flurry of geographic answers and elements, coupled with an absence of any … Read more >>
Independent 7,648/Tees
Hmmm, I’ve got mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, I would have liked to have had more time at it (on a Bank Holiday for example!), but a lack of … Read more >>