Sunday Times 4683 by Dean Mayer - Lean 'n' Mean...
Something of a tour de force from Dean this week, in my view. Decidedly tricky in places (13a was devious in the extreme, and 15a had me pacing around and growling for several minutes until the penny...
View ArticleMephisto 2896 by Tim Moorey - My Double Ton
My 200th Mephisto blog (ignoring two specials in June 2011 in memory of Mike Laws). My first was puzzle 2489 of 11th May 2008 (also by Tim Moorey as it happens).A middle-of-the-road puzzle this one...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 520 by Flamande
7 minutes for this one which I would rate at the easier end of the spectrum but my judgement has been proved wrong so often that we'll have to see what others made of it.As usual, definitions in clues...
View ArticleTimes 26353 - Ton Up
Today is my hundredth blog. To mark the occasion, I invited my fellow bloggers (including a couple of lapsed ones) to help write up the Across clues. I also approached one confrère specifically to see...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26354
I found this one quite hard in places and spent an hour on it by which time I had been stuck on the final two answers long enough to be bored with them so I looked them up and technically did not...
View ArticleQuick Crytpic 521 by Mara
One too many gods (or one O too few) combined with a crossing COD plus a quick chemistry lesson made this trickier than it might have been and I came in at 15 minutes. Well, I would have done but for...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 522 by Rongo
This one had a bit of a different feel to it. A quick initial glance through the clues revealed no less than seven ending with a question mark, suggesting that this one was going to be more on the...
View ArticleTimes 26355 - unpredicted outcome, unfeasible idea, all of the above
With 1a, 1d, 12a and 13d flying in, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, but in the end it was more of a crawl through the undergrowth. There was some fine misdirection which had me...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 523 by Orpheus
A very enjoyable puzzle with a good mix of politics, art, music, science, sport, geography and entertainment. I'd thought there was no literature until I remembered that the prime minister in 6d also...
View ArticleTimes 26356 - for the 25 of Mr. Kite, vale George Martin
Solving time : 11:19, which places me fourth on the club timer, just over three hours after this puzzle appeared (I solved it right away but had to run some errands, so this report is coming up a...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 524 by Teazel
I didn’t do this one on the timer, so couldn’t say where it fell on the difficulty spectrum for me, but a couple of clues did hold me up – 8a and 12a – and I’m still not sure I got the parsing right on...
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Times 26,357: A Watched Odyssey Never Boils
It seems like an age since I've solved the Friday puzzle in the manner that God intended for me, that is, rolling home around midnight after a heavy alcohol-fuelled night at one of London's premier...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1194
Not too difficult this time, I thought. I didn't know the historical reference in 1ac, though. 23ac is probably the most obscure answer.As always, * indicates an anagram.Across1BARE BONES - double...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo Cryptic Crossword Book 12 - Puzzle Index
Here is an index mapping the puzzles in Times Jumbo Cryptic Crossword Book 12 to the corresponding blogs on TftT. Note that three of the puzzles were never blogged.This book contains puzzles from 2009....
View ArticleTimes Jumbo Cryptic Crossword Book 13 - Puzzle Index
Here is an index mapping the puzzles in Times Jumbo Cryptic Crossword Book 13 to the corresponding blogs on TftT.This book contains puzzles from 2010. The editor at the time was Richard Browne, and the...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26352 (5th March)
Solving time 14:42. Quite a mixed bag here, with literature and mythology well represented, but also a bit of sport, politics and science. A couple of relatively obscure words (I'm thinking DITHYRAMB...
View ArticleTLS Crossword - bloggers wanted
Peter Biddlecombe is now editing the TLS Crossword (he has been helping out for a while but now it's official), and he's asked me if we might start blogging it again. Myself and Tony Sever did...
View ArticleMephisto 2897 - Paul McKenna
I started working on this without access to Chambers, and was having a hard time of it - several question marks. I finished it waiting for a flight, loving my WordWeb version of Chambers on my new...
View ArticleSunday 4684 by David McLean - solve, or solve not
36:27. I thought this was a really first-class puzzle. Rather like Dean Mayer this setter seems to have a mind that works a little bit differently to most, so that there are always lots of moments...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 525 by Dazzler
A pleasant solve from Dazzler today, with no obscurities and some nice surfaces. Unfortunately I think this setter died in December of last year so regrettably we will only have a few more of his...
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