Guardian Cryptic 26706 by Rufus
A bit trickier than usual from Rufus, and a nice start to the week. A few swindles in the clues had me looking for any further connections, but I’m yet to think of any. Favourites 25ac, 5dn, 7dn, and 21dn.
Beelzebub 1,336
Crikey. If anyone has been thinking Beelzebub has been getting easier recently they were in for a shock today. Or at least, I was. You probably breezed through it, but after a reasonably … Read more >>
Azed 2262 – oops!
By the “breakfast test” this counted as quite easy on the Azed spectrum, even though in retrospect it seems to have quite a high proportion of unfamiliar words. Unusually, there are only 34 … Read more >>
Independent on Sunday 1338/Daedalus
This is Daedalus’ fourth appearance in the IoS/Indy, and the third one of those that has fallen to me to cover. He’s no doubt getting fed up with that, because I wasn’t a … Read more >>
Everyman 3,601
The puzzle may be found at http://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/everyman/3601
Guardian Prize 26,699 / Brummie
The Special Instructions read, ‘Solutions to four across and four down clues require a letter to be changed before entry in the grid. All these eight entries are of a kind’. Brummie’s puzzles … Read more >>
Independent 9045 Tees (Sat 10-Oct 2015)
This was a crossword of two halves After my “first pass” I had the entire left hand side complete but not the central down 5D and only a scattering in the right hand side. Indeed … Read more >>
Enigmatic Variations 1194 Taking Umbrage by Charybdis
A large circle – a large circle, small circle 27 misprints and a change of 4 characters in the final grid – Sounds interesting. Also sounds like it is published specifically on this … Read more >>
Guardian Cryptic 26704 by Pasquale
With apologies for lateness – I found this a little hard to get into in the morning but coming back, it all seemed clearly clued and very fun. Favourite was 14dn.
Independent 9050 by Phi
The usual enjoyable crossword from Phi today. It is, one would think, on the easy side for him because so many of the answers can be parsed simply, but I didn’t find it all that easy and failed completely on 2dn.
In a Phi crossword there are seldom clues that really hit you between the eyes, but everything is very pleasant and efficient and it all seems to be sound.
Financial Times 15063 by BRADMAN
An intriguing challenge from Bradman, thanks to whom for a busy Friday morning. I got through the right half of the grid pretty quickly but then had to plod through the remainder. 13ac I believe has a typo in the solution and a couple of other clues could have been ‘stronger’ in my opinion. Overall, a satisfactory start to Friday crossword solving!
Financial Times 15062 by MAGWITCH
Very pleasant. Thank you, Magwitch.
Guardian 26,703 – Imogen
Good-quality stuff from Imogen. In the reverse of my usual pattern I started off quite quickly, with the help 1a and 1d coming early, but had a few problems later on, especially in … Read more >>
Independent 9049 / Knut
As it’s Thursday, we expected something a little trickier than usual – and Knut certainly delivered! The last Knut puzzle that we blogged in July was themed around the Greek financial crisis. This … Read more >>