Times 25449 - It's a Scott, but not a Scot
Solving time: 45 rather distracted minutesMusic: None, the playoff at The MastersDue to the events at Augusta, I tackled this puzzle with only half my attention. Fortunately, it proved to be another...
View ArticleBank Holiday Monday Times Jumbo 1029
An appropriate theme for the April 1st Jumbo, with plenty of fools among the answers (SIMPLETON, AIRHEAD, BERK, CLOT, CHUMP, BUFFOON, DUNCE, CLOWN and DUMMY), and ALL FOOLS' DAY appearing at 57ac. I...
View ArticleTimes 25,450 From Kansas To Coldstream
Solving time 15 minutesAn pleasant if rather easy puzzle that shouldn't cause too many problemsAcross1AFFRIGHT - A-F(FR)IGHT; 5BANYAN - BAN(Y)AN(a); Y from (cherr)Y; national tree of India; 8RUT - two...
View ArticleToday's puzzle
As I'm currently on admin duty for linxit, I thought it best to reiterate here what Jerry said a few days ago, in case anyone missed it.Today's puzzle (25451) is the first Qualifier for the...
View ArticleTimes 25452 - Life of Brian
Quite an entertaining puzzle today with a good variety of devices.ACROSS1 PICKINGS Cha of PIC (picture, snap) KINGS (playing cards)5 STATIC Ins of TA (Territorial Army, volunteers) in STICK (stand)...
View ArticleTimes 25453 - In decline
I found it very hard to work up any momentum on this and having struggled to get started I battled through most of it at snail pace with only occasional bursts of energy to restore my flagging spirits....
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1030 (6 Apr 2013)
Solving time: About two and a half hours offline, but with one wrong.I actually had two wrong, but one of those was just a typo when I filled it in online - I had it correct on my printed copy, so I...
View ArticleDaily 25448 - Saturday 13th - more vocab deficiency issues - first Nudnik,...
Decent Saturday offering, no gimmes, and a steady solve with some head scratching along the way. Technically this was a DNF for me as after about 25 minutes (of which 5 were spent staring at 29A), I...
View ArticleSunday Times 4533 (14 Apr 2013) by Dean Mayer
Solving time: About 45 minutes offline.It's another supremely witty offering from Dean, and a lot of fun to solve. So many good clues that it's very difficult to pick a COD. Actually, that's not true,...
View ArticleMephisto 2746 by Tim Moorey
I had an easy week both with this puzzle and my Tuesday blog. Ran through this in double quick time virtually without looking in Chambers. No idea how well known the KP abreviation used here is - I...
View ArticleTimes 25455 - Wish I could say it was a typo
22 minutes, but with one wrong. Nice, gentle start to the 'daily' week. I'm adopting the 'Leave none behind' protocol from now on, so every answer will be given (hopefully, the right ones). Across1...
View ArticleClarification - Times Crossword Championships 2013
[Announcement made at the end of last week in The Times and on the Crossword Club website]Much to our regret, we discovered after publication that the first qualifying puzzle for this year’s Times...
View ArticleTimes 25,456
14:20 suggests mid-range difficulty; decent, if not madly exciting puzzle, though there were at least a couple of occasions where I raised a metaphorical eyebrow.Across1KELVIN - Large in...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,451 - First Championship Qualifier (or not!)
Solving Time: Normally I wouldn't give a time. This is the first Times National Crossword Championship Qualifying puzzle of 2013. By tradition we don't discuss solving times for these here, and also by...
View ArticleTimes 25457: Diet of coffee, tea, apples & pears
Solving time: 28:09Not a difficult puzzle, but with a few harder clues on the right-hand side. Helped here by a couple of repeat answers from recent puzzles. If you take out the crytpic and double...
View ArticleTimes 25458 - dial-a-loser
Solving time : 22:25 on the club timer, which is on the high side for me, though looking back there's nothing that difficult, I just don't think I was on the setters wavelength. There were three or...
View ArticleTimes 25459
Solving time: About 80 minutes, but I was way too tired to give this a proper go. If I hadn't been blogging, there's no way I would have even attempted it. It was as much as I could do just to stay...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20151 April 2013 - Natural History edition
Solving Time: Just over an hour, so about average for me, although it did feel quite a hard crossword. Another high class offering, though, and a welcome diversion from some of the more ramshackle...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25454 (20th April)
Thanks to Sarah and Marcos for stepping in for me for a couple of weeks. I've was too busy to even solve any puzzles then, let alone blog them, but I've just about caught up again now. This one was...
View ArticleSunday Times 4534 (21 Apr 2013) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 39:02I thought this was an excellent offering from Tim this week - one of his best. Not too tricky, but with some excellent wordplay in a few places. I particularly liked the two long...
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