Times Cryptic 26540
My problems finishing off continued today and I resorted to aids for two answers as the hour approached. The one at 7dn I should have got but I was still missing the first checker and it refused to...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 676 by Alfie
I'm not if sure Alfie is a new setter but the name doesn't seem familiar - anyway he (presumably) is most welcome. This was a mixture of easy and challenging clues 4dn/9ac proved enough challenge to...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 677 by Rongo
A pleasant, gentle offering from Rongo today. Nothing too tricky and no obscurities. Thanks to our setter. Definitions underlined: DD = double definition: anagrams indicated by *(--): omitted letters...
View ArticleTimes 26541 - worth the p-pain
Had this not been a blog-day, I might well have put this one down after half an hour, with only two-thirds of it filled in. I wasn't particulary enjoying it, my arthritic hip was sore and I had an...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26542 - October 13, 2016 The royal I and I
24.40 completes a set of times in the 40’s, 30’s, 20’ and 10’s this week, and it remains to be seen at which end I complete the running flush. I look forward to seeing what the assembled company...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 678 by Izetti
Another lovely puzzle from Izetti. Probably around par in terms of difficulty for this setter - I took a notch over 14 mins. I was delayed a bit by the NW, having a mental block at 1ac, 1d and 8ac, and...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 679 by Mara
An enjoyable offering from Mara. Took me about five and a half minutes, so I'm thinking it was on the easier side of average difficulty. What did you think?There was nothing too devious in the...
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TLS 1143 by Broteas, Sept 23rd - the end of all our exploring
One of the joys of blogging a TLS puzzle is the time you get to spend researching clues that almost everyone else threw in with a shrug and a "Gotta be". This week there were two of them, LANIGER and...
View ArticleTimes 26,543: A Variety of Registers
After four really quite chewy puzzles in a row, I was living in superstitious dread of what Friday might bring, but I needn't have worried: this was by some distance the most straightforward of the...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26538 (8th Oct)
12:31, so a bit easier than the last few weeks (it was for me anyway). Plenty of really good clues in this one, but my COD is 14ac, closely followed by 22ac I think. TOD (Turkey of the Day) to 17dn, as...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1229
There was one answer (57ac) that I hadn't come across before - otherwise I thought this was fairly straightforward.Hope to see some of you at, or after, the Times Championship in London next...
View ArticleSunday Times 4715 by Jeff Pearce
After the last couple of weeks' offerings from the DMs that were enough to drive a man to drink even more than usual, it was a pleasant relief to get something that was significantly more attainable to...
View ArticleMephisto 2928 by Don Manley - strewth - wot no rats!
Pleasant if straightforward puzzleAcross3PERU,BALSAM - (as a plumber)*; thick black liquid (not from the Liffey); 11TENUE - TENU(r)E; manner of dress; 12CAPUERA - CAPU(t)-ERA; head=caput; martial art...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 680 by Flamande
Yes, me again, making a rare appearance blogging a puzzle whose number doesn't end in 5. I'll be away a couple of times in the next month so jackkt has kindly agreed to swap our slots in that time in...
View ArticleTimes 26545 – Swansong (now cancelled!!)
I'm posting this on behalf of Hugh (ulaca) who is unable to do so himself for reasons he explains below. I only received this an hour or so ago and I haven't had a chance to "speak" to him yet, but I...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26546
After yesterday's blog by proxy, here's one of my own.This one presented a few problems in the solving and even more in the blogging where I found some of the parsing quite tricky to explain and I'm...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 681 by Tracy
This all flowed quite smoothly and enjoyably with some lovely wordplay/surfaces until I reached the bottom section where 15dn, 21 and 22ac caused me some 'quality thinking time'. Having eventually...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 682 by Hawthorn
As ever, a delightful little number from Hawthorn characterised by elegant and witty clueing, with no obscurities but plenty to give the grey matter a bit of a work out. The whole thing was an object...
View ArticleTimes 26547 - a melange
I found this a strange puzzle, because it offered a mixture of dead-easy quickie-type clues and much trickier ones which would have been hard to see without the checkers from the write-ins. With 1a and...
View ArticleTimes 26548 - a fractured fairy tale
Solving time : 11:27, and I was the first one in on the club timer. Could have been a bit quicker if I knew how to spell, as a poor spelling of 7 down (since it was partially clued as a homophone, my...
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