Sunday Times 4687 by David McLean - Off With His Head!
A most enjoyable romp with an intriguing mix of some unusually (for "Harry") straightforward stuff - 1d, 18d and 7d come to mind - and some tricky ones such as 5d, 15d and the excellent 22a.Some...
View ArticleMephisto 2900 - Paul McKenna
Best puzzle for some time I thought. Some unusual anagram indicators, clever definitions, and tricky wordplays. Loved it.Across1BLOUSON - B(LOUS(e))ON; swine=louse; french for good=BON; a jacket; 7RAZE...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 540 by Palpatine
I was going to welcome a new setter, but a glance at my notes on former puzzles revealed that Palpatine has appeared once before (#300 in May last year) when he (?) treated us to a puzzle with a 'Star...
View ArticleTimes 26377 – Though I Dream in Vain
Some bridge, some baseball, some golf, but not a cricketing clue in sight. Thank the Lord for small mercies, then, after watching England just a Brathwaite away from Twenty20 glory. Sometimes I wonder...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26378
I solved this in 43 minutes but by contrast with the easy time I had of things last week, I found this was one of the most awkward blogs to write that I can remember. I'd done all the parsing as I...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 541 by Orpheus
A mainly easy crossword with a couple of knotty clues and an unusual number of hyphenated words thrown in. 10 minutes.I've kept the blog brief - we're all lined up ready to field any further...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 542 by Pedro
Maybe it was just me, but I found this one quite an odd experience. For me, it was one where the answers flowed in easily enough (no obscure GK or unusual words) but where the detailed parsing of...
View ArticleTimes 26379 - Gaping gaps here, to whit.
After yesterday's amazing NINA I finished this, parsed, in 17 minutes and spent a couple searching for another, to no avail; the day you get one is of course the day you don't think to look. Anyway...
View ArticleTimes 26380 - the crossword that came to dinner
Solving time : According to the club timer, 27:46, but there is a bit of a story here. I'm in dress rehearsals for a production of The Man Who Came To Dinner and I finally managed to get the wireless...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 543 by Dazzler
Something of a musical theme today, which isn’t my strong point, but I still managed to get this done in 12 minutes. This is my first blog, so please be gentle with me. I struggled only with a couple...
View ArticleTLS Crossword 1117 by Praxiteles. March 18, 2016
Herewith the debut blog for the weekly TLS puzzles. Your bloggers will be Zabadak, Sotira and Verlaine in tandem, and me - all in rotation. Some years ago Tony Sever and Linxit blogged these here but...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 544 by Joker
Many nice surface readings in this week’s offerings – my favourites 14d and 18a. If one is going for a quick solve it’s easy to lose sight of the clue as a whole and that’s often a shame. I liked 6d...
View ArticleTimes 26,381: There's No Crying In Baseball
What I'm sure should have been a pleasant, not too difficult (for a Friday) solve was slightly marred by some bad enumerations in the SW. Fortunately I wasn't stymied for too long by ORNA-MENT, but...
View ArticleJumbo 1197 March 19, 2016 - Shebangabang
Have to admit I struggled with this one for more than an hour and a half, possibly because of the ten (count 'em) unknowns. Still, that's one of the joys of crosswords, and since solving this I've...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26376 (2nd April)
13:44 for this, which seemed about average until I looked at the stats on the Crossword Club and found that there were no genuine times under 10 minutes. Now having blogged it, I still can't see where...
View ArticleJUMBO 1198
Nothing too taxing on this one, but in 18A there is an inconsistency that I am unsure about. All the references I found show a different spelling for the cryptic part, and I don't think the question...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1199 - Easter Monday
A not-too-tough Jumbo (I thought), with quite a high anagram count, for the bank holiday Monday. As always, * indicates an anagram.Across1SPRING - triple definition5MUSTANG - MUG, around S +...
View ArticleMephisto 2901 - Don Manley
It's been a long week, so I don't remember too much about solving this one. I think I started it over coffee and finished it off during breaks in a show I was rehearsing (we opened last night). I don't...
View ArticleSunday Times 4688 by Jeff Pearce - a sting ray in the tail
26:52. Another fine effort from Jeff Pearce, and one that gave me a good deal of trouble. Most of it went in reasonably smoothly, but then I found myself badly stuck in the south-east corner with three...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 545 by Teazel
It took me a while to get going on this one, with several of the across clues in particular bringing nothing to mind on first reading. Looking back, I'm not sure why that was but it made it that bit...
View Article