Times 26,294
Exactly the sort of puzzle I found I wanted at this point in the holiday season. Just taxing enough to stimulate the jaded appetite, but didn't outstay its welcome like a lot of the food which is now...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 472 by Flamande
A puzzle at the easier end of the spectrum, I thought, but with some neat clues (particularly liked 8a and 23a). Last in was 19dn, which took me an age to see even with the cross checkersThanks to...
View ArticleTimes Championship 2015: Grand Final, puzzle two (Times 26295)
In my view this was the hardest of the three puzzles in the Grand Final; it took me over an hour, so I'd have been sitting chewing my pencil long after you speedy solvers had adjourned to the pub. You...
View ArticleTimes 26296 - last typo of the year!
Solving time : 13:30, but the club timer is telling me I have two wrong, which usually means a silly typo in crossing entries. And there it is in la femme best known for visiting la guillotine. Well...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 473 by Orpheus. A Very Happy 2016 to All.
Ding dong - no not merrily on high, but get me to Brooklyn Borough Hall on time. My younger daughter is getting married in the morning. That's the way to ring out the old! I'll have a look here when...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20183 December 2015
I thought this blog might be a little bit late this month, but the competition entries close at midnight on the last Thursday of the month - which this month apparently means the exact moment when...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 474 by Des
A nice crossword to start the New Year. That popular port of crossword setters makes another appearance – is it possible to know how many times it came up in 2015? My favourite clue, 3d, because, for...
View ArticleTimes 26,297: Wasn't He In Take That?
And a Happy New Year to you all. 2016 seems to have got off to a good start with this puzzle, which I really enjoyed despite doing it (somewhere inside a quarter of an hour) late at night...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26292 (26th Dec)
I tried solving this at my desk at work last Tuesday, but it ended up being a lot busier than I thought it would so I didn't get a good run at it at all, so no idea what my solving time was. About two...
View ArticleSunday Times 4674 by Jeff Pearce - Hertz So Good
26:12. I found this decidedly challenging, but also very enjoyable. As I and others have commented before, Jeff Pearce really seems to have upped his game in recent months. Not all of this seems to...
View ArticleSunday Times Christmas Crossword by Dean Mayer (4673)
Well, my friends, don't know about you but I found this quite a challenge! I was expecting the usual 15x15 Sunday grid, when suddenly a 23x23 popped up (and just to add to the terror, set by The...
View ArticleMephisto 2887 - Tim Moorey
Tim Moorey has taken a break from the Sunday Times rotation (I guess we will find out next week who the replacement is), but I was relieved to find out he was going to continue with the Mephisto. There...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1182
Solving time of 26:30, which is well within the 25-35 minutes I regard as normal difficulty for a Jumbo. Perfectly enjoyable puzzle, and while I don't think there's much to give experienced solvers...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 475 by Grumpy
A fairly straightforward puzzle for my first blog of the year. And maybe it's just a one-off, but the URL numbering was just one greater than for last Friday's puzzle, meaning it was easy to locate in...
View ArticleTimes 26299 - The emperor will continue to sleep without a sign!
Solving time: 26 minutesMusic: Beethoven, Kreutzer and Spring Sonatas, Rubinstein/SzeryingI thought I was in for a quick solve when I put in the first five at sight, starting at 1 across. While I...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26300
I finished this in a few minutes over the half-hour and would have thought it quite easy had it not been for four obscurities (i.e. words or meanings unknown to me) that interrupted the flow of my...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 476 by Teazel
A gentle romp from Teazel today - for which thank you! I was pushed just over ten minutes by some ponderings over 5dn. Rushing out - so forgive any typos (again!).ACROSS7. Print run - the number of...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 477 by Pelmas
I don’t think we’ve had one from Pelmas before, but hope to see him/her appear more often because I enjoyed this puzzle. I little harder than average perhaps? I thought 17ac and 23ac were excellent,...
View ArticleTimes 26301 - normal service resumed
After nine weeks of leisurely blogging of the Championship puzzles, today we were back to the usual routine of "make the tea, print off the puzzle, hope you can solve it for a timely blog". Not usually...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 478 by Hurley. It's all Greek to me.
Very good workmanlike puzzle. Nothing specially noteworthy, although 18a was nicely disguised (it took some passes before I spotted it). And 22a was well hidden. No I certainly didn't know the...
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