Times 26368 - is there a political statement in 27 across?
Solving time : 9:08, which right now, about two and a half hours after the puzzle came out, puts me at third on the leaderboard, so I suspect this is on the easier side of the offerings with maybe one...
View ArticleQuick Crossword 534 by Mara
Lots of double definitions this week, along with some enjoyable surface readings; favourites at 15a and 7d, and the anagram at 8d. Found 2d difficult to parse as had RUE at first coming from regret and...
View ArticleTimes 26,369: Taking A Bath
Happy Easter! Due to the rare privilege of not having to go to work on a Friday, I tackled this puzzle not with the chimes of midnight, but immediately upon getting up in the morning, pre-coffee even,...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26364 (19th March)
20:43 for this one, held up by DUFFEL confidently written in at 6ac! In fact there seemed to be a mini-theme based on 1ac going on here, what with SPENSERIAN (the master of mis-spelling) and then an...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Vacancy
Olivia's off to her home in the wilderness this week (I've seen pictures, looks quite idyllic but there's no Internet access), so will be unable to blog the Quickie for the next few months.So if you...
View ArticleSunday Times 4686 by Dean Mayer - lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate
27:44. Another tricky one from Dean, and highly enjoyable as always. He has a knack for writing clues that I at least find completely baffling until the penny drops. Bog-standard cryptic crossword...
View ArticleMephisto 2899, Tim Moorey
Rather a surprise - my brother's family is visiting this weekend on pretty short notice, so I haven't written up the Mephisto yet. I hope to have it done by mid-afternoon Sunday UK time, in the...
View ArticleJUMBO 1196
As the recently departed Keith Emerson used to play along to, welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. I solved this the day after publication after a long drive and with much in the way...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 535 by Grumpy
Nothing particularly taxing about this one with my only pause at 3D, where the wordplay was clear enough even if the answer wasn't familiar to me. So thanks to Grumpy for a gentle start to the week....
View ArticleTimes 26371 - A quaaltagh, eh?
Solving time: 43 minutesMusic: Rimsky-Korsakov, Symphony #2, I was all done in 30 minutes....except for two. Unfortunately, they proved strangely elusive, and in the end had to be tracked down through...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26372
I finished this in only a minute under the hour but I really don’t know why it took so long, as when it came to blogging I found it one of the most straightforward that I've ever written and there's...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 536 by Tracy
Something of a struggle today - 17 minutes and a final slip at 14ac making a DNF. The bottom half of the grid came together slowly but it wasn't until 3dn finally clicked that the top half opened up...
View ArticleTimes 26373
Placeholder - Wednesday's blog may be a little delayed as I have to make an early morning visit before tackling the puzzle.If a fellow blogger would like to volunteer to do Wed 13th April for me, I'd...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 537 by Izetti
The hardest for a while in my book. Although the first few went in quickly, the majority required concentrated effort, and I was finally held up for several minutes by Bible Corner (16dn, 19dn, 22ac),...
View Article26374 If only I'd remembered who talked to the animals
There are, in my opinion, a couple of nasty little traps in this one, one of which I fell headlong into to continue a run of sub-600 scores. In the process of producing this report, I'm going to need...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 538 by Mara
Hello there!My name's RolyToly and I'll be filling in for Olivia for a bit, doing alternate Thursdays. As you might guess from the messed up format, this is my first attempt at blogging an answer. I'm...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20186 March 2016
Reasonably straightforward this month. 6dn a little complex to parse for a 4 letter word, which however is in Chambers, ODO, Collins etc. Sorry the blog is a little on the terse side, do ask if...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 539 by Dazzler
A good workout from Dazzler, with some tricky clues and some more familiar outings. LOI 5a and COD 22a ings Across1Witticism involving English farm animals: EPIGRAMEnglish = E, farm animals = PIG,...
View ArticleTimes 26,375: Blessed Are The Cheesemakers
An excellent and chewy puzzle to ring in a new month with, I thought. My aged mum is staying with us for the Easter hols to perform important kid-wrangling duties, so the Blogging Room was out of...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26370 (26 March)
No time for this, solved in the paper for a change over a leisurely pint. Probably no more than 15 minutes though, as it wasn't too difficult. Very enjoyable solve though (apart from 3dn).Across1Poison...
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