Yes, OK, there’s one of mine in the Sunday Times this weekend, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a wee treat in the meantime. Just for you:

http://crossword.info/anaxcrosswords/SFTW002

After a thankfully brief hiatus all has returned to normal in my little WordPress household (no thanks to WordPress who completely ignored all support submissions). A thorough malware and AV scan revealed pretty much nothing of the former and just one of the latter – but it appears the single virus it found was doing something naughty to my login attempts.

Anyway, not much news to report beyond that, except a note to say it’s my turn on the Sunday Times this weekend. In light of general feeling about difficulty levels in the Sunday cryptics a number of clues have been eased up – I’d be very grateful to hear how you get on with it.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Yes indeed. And this time I mean it – it really is Elkamere offering tomorrow’s Telegraph Toughie. I’m hoping for a 3-star difficulty rating this time.

OK, so here’s a simple poll. The answers are generalised but hopefully one of them is reasonably close to how you feel about the difficulty level of Sunday cryptics, given the fact that this has been upped somewhat in a few papers.

MINOR UPDATE: Of course, with this being a blog please don’t feel restricted to just voting. I really would like you to take the opportunity to comment as well.

Incidentally, just a modest plug to say Loroso returns to the FT tomorrow after an unexpectedly long gap – it wasn’t a case of not having puzzles in stock, just the way the run of puzzles was arranged.

URGENT UPDATE Today’s Loroso FT has a preamble stating that all definitions in all across clues have something in common. THIS ISN’T THE CASE – this preamble has been accidentally left in place from a previous puzzle (This has now been corrected in the online version).

I’m glad it’s not just me. Yes, I’ve been ‘guilty’ of introducing harder puzzles to the Sunday Times series, but blog comments indicate that tougher challenges are being presented by traditionally easy series such as the Observer and Independent. It would be interesting to know what solvers feel about this trend.

For my part, I’ve always regarded gentle Sunday cryptics as very slightly odd. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t disapprove. Easy cryptics are vital. But it’s usually the case that, for many quality dailies, the Monday puzzle tends to be the easiest of the week, and I’d have thought that if you’re going to have easy puzzles shouldn’t they be at the beginning of the working week, when the working day itself dictates (for many) that solving time is at a premium? Comparatively few people work on Sunday, so is there any harm in this day’s puzzle offering enough of a challenge to keep you going for as much of the day as you need?

What do you think?

I haven’t posted one of these in a while and there’s at least a week before my next newspaper outing, so here’s a moderately pitched puzzle to take you into the weekend: http://crossword.info/anaxcrosswords/SFTW001

…for the Telegraph Toughie. One to raise a smile or two. Still have no idea when the next FT Loroso will be but it seems like a heck of a long time since the last one.

UPDATE: In the print version of the puzzle there’s an error at 6d – somehow the clue for 3d has been repeated. The clue should read:

Funny show featuring model and short groom (6)

As I won’t be around (for internet purposes, anyway) today, I’ll take this opportunity to wish everyone the very best for 2012, and huge thanks for your encouragement and kindness over the past year(s). I haven’t spent much time thinking about resolutions, but I don’t need to – my thoughts are clear; for 2012 and beyond, my greatest hope is that the amazing clue-writing talents I’ve seen emerging recently will come to fruition in the form of published work. Qix, Dalibor and Boaz are just 3 of a generous handful of setters who have shown everyone the hands which will safely carry the future of cryptic crosswords. I really hope that 2012 will see these outstanding talents make their individual marks in crosswordland – they deserve it.

A Happy New Year to you all.

Hello all. Right, I’ve been a bit quiet over the past few days but I’ve been working on something, so here it is. Something to keep you occupied for a while if you feel the need to tear yourself away from food and booze. There’s no Christmas theme – there was just this long answer I wanted to put in a grid. A warning though; if you hate long anagrams please do a runner right now!

http://crossword.info/anaxcrosswords/NCE

Have fun, and to all, have a Very Merry Christmas and a Smashing New Year.

PS: You’ll all be singing it tomorrow – for your entertainment (no cheating now) here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hk5d5703M

OK, it’s a busy weekend for me, consisting largely of band gigs in the delightful town of Llangollen which will keep me away from the computer for a few days; but I can leave you with a few puzzles to play with while I’m playing away.

Tomorrow sees Elkamere return to the Friday Telegraph Toughie slot with a slightly unusual puzzle on a very odd grid (hopefully you’ll understand the choice as you solve it). Christmas comes early in this weekend’s Sunday Times with a Jumbo puzzle.  And finally Anax returns to the Independent on Monday with a gentle thematic.

Have fun one and all. Time for me to start packing gear, re-stringing the bass, giving the vocal cords a gargle, blah blah… Just hope we don’t get too much snow.