Anto’s turn in the Quiptic slot this week.
Guardian 27,400 – Pan
It’ll be interesting to see what sort of pattern of setters we get for “Easy Monday” after Rufus’s retirement. Chifonie last week, and now Pan, who has been more of a Quiptic setter, … Read more >>
Independent 9746/Vigo
If the editor has decided to continue in 2018 with the tradition of an accessible puzzle in the Monday Indy slot, then he has chosen well here. A very pleasing cryptic from Vigo … Read more >>
Cyclops 615 – Xmas Special (Tweet-le-dumb Britain?)
My fellow Cyclops blogger beermagnet kindly ‘took one for the team’ and allowed me to have the Xmas special this year, even though it fell on his shift. Much appreciated… This is the … Read more >>
AZED 2,377
I got though this quite quickly, so either I’m getting better or this is at the easier end of the Azed spectrum. Thank you Azed for yet another fine puzzle.
Independent on Sunday 1,454 by Nitsy
Haven’t bumped into Nitsy for a while. This was classic Sunday stuff: great fun from start to finish, nothing especially controversial and one or two things to learn along the way, such as … Read more >>
AZED 2,376
It took me several sittings to (almost) complete this one. The puddings weren’t too difficult to identify, but some of the coins were new to me.
Everyman 3,716
The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3716.
Enigmatic Variations No.1310 – More Crackers by Charismatix
“Nine clues consist of jokes that might be found in CRACKERS; the grid entry in each case is the punchline. In 40 clues, the wordplay leads to the answer plus an additional letter not to be entered in the grid; in clue order these give another joke, the punchline to which (13 letters) must be highlighted. Chambers Dictionary (2016) is recommended.”
Independent 9745 / Serpent
Another pleasing puzzle today from Old Snake Hips (as Hoskins calls Serpent). We’ve blogged the last two Serpent offerings so he may be getting a bit fed up with us. However, we are … Read more >>
Guardian Prize 27,393 / Paul
I suspect this is the Paul puzzle which appeared on line for a while by mistake on the day Rufus’ retirement was announced – in which case, perhaps some of you did it … Read more >>
Financial Times 15,748 by BRADMAN
My first blog for 2018 is from a familiar setter to feature on Fridays. Thanks Bradman for a gentle workout to get the year started.
Independent 9,744 by Phi
Sorry, rather late again. I spent too much time in the small hours listening to the cricket and as a result it was suddenly 8.25.
The usual nice crossword from Phi. Uncontroversial I think, and all seemed to be easy enough, at any rate in retrospect (although I realised afterwards that I’d forgotten to do that nine holes answer, which is what it almost certainly was although I’d never heard of it). But this is not to say that at the time of solving it wasn’t as much of a challenge as it always is.
Guardian 27,398 – Vlad
As seems to happen regularly, Vlad softened me up with a few easy clues, but left me struggling afterwards. Still, I got there in the end, and it all looks perfectly reasonable in … Read more >>
Guardian 27,397 / Paul
An entertaining puzzle from Paul to brighten a very dull morning. A medley of some easy charades [8ac and 13dn] and insertions [9ac and 5dn] and some very neatly crafted clues [15ac 14dn and … Read more >>