Guardian 25,235 – Chifonie
A fairly typical Chifonie, with a lot of quite obvious clues. There’s a preponderance of charade clues, with 13 out of 28 being of that type, including 10 out of 14 acrosses: rather … Read more >>
Inquisitor 1161 – Nicknames by Ifor – Saturday 23rd January 2011
Ifor is a new compiler for the Inquisitor but he has had four crosswords published in The Magpie and one published in the Telegraph Enigmatic Variations series, all in the last two years. I … Read more >>
The One Show
Most of you will be aware of the controversy surrounding the inclusion of secret D-Day code-words in Daily Telegraph crosswords only days before the operation. For those who aren’t familiar, or those who would … Read more >>
Independent 7580/Eimi
A nice crossword today from Eimi, generally easy enough but with one or two slightly difficult (for me at any rate) words or senses of words. It seems that there is something … Read more >>
Financial Times 13,606 / Armonie
A quick, clean Tuesday puzzle from Armonie. No especial comments, except that I thought the anagram fodder was cleverly blended into the clue in 10 across. Other favourites today were 27 across and … Read more >>
Guardian 25234 Paul … Good things come in threes
The Chinese has a saying that good things come in threes and true to the ancient wisdom of my people, I get to blog Paul for the third time in a row. This … Read more >>
How to solve cryptic crosswords
Don Manley is giving a presentation on ‘How to solve cryptic crosswords’ in Oxford on Saturday 26th March. Details of the event are given below. .
Independent 7579 by Crosophile
This is, I think, a new pseudonym for the Indy so maybe a new setter. If so, welcome! Quite a difficult puzzle, I found, solving time 43 mins, but I got there … Read more >>
Guardian 25,233 / Rufus
This was a fairly standard puzzle from Rufus that will no doubt divide the solving community along the usual lines. As ever, from Rufus, there were a number of clues based on cryptic … Read more >>
Quiptic crossword No 585
I was feeling particularly leaden, and made heavy weather of solving this, but in writing it up there does not seem to be anything to struggle over: mostly straightforward charades and envelopes. Across … Read more >>
Private Eye/Cyclops 435 – Telltale Claptrap
First Eye blog of the new year for me. Thanks to jetdoc who is alternating the task from now on and who produced an admirable effort last time. She has certainly laid down … Read more >>
Beelzebub 1092
Beelzebub has certainly thrown down the gauntlet with this cruciverbal challenge * anagram dd double definition () omitted < reverse ACROSS 2 JUSTE MILIEU IM JULIET SUE* 9 NAPPE NAPPE(R) … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1093 by Quixote
Another quality work from the Don with a rich variety of cryptic devices, each crafted well and creatively. I do, however, have one teeny-weeny quibble. Dr Brian Skinner, my crossword moderator, would never … Read more >>
Azed 2017
I found this one of the hardest Azed plain puzzles for a long time, with, I think, a higher-than-average proportion of obscure words. I ended up with some rather tedious dictionary-searching to get … Read more >>
Everyman No 3,356
A few mild obscurities, perhaps, but plenty of smooth surfaces. Thanks to The Trafites and to PeeDee for the tools to help create this blog. Across 1. A master of light farce with … Read more >>