Times 26887 - Pictures of Matchstick Men
Time: 42 minutesMusic: Rimsky-Korsakov, Scheherezade, Kondrashin/LSOAt first I thought this was going to be another impossible Monday, but once I started following the cryptics I began to make a little...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 966 by Tracy
I didn’t find this at all easy and had to chip away around the grid. 10 and loi 11ac then formed the final hurdles which took some time to clear. That I made heavy weather of this, coming in at 16...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26888
The return to my original TftT userpic marks the 10th anniversary this week of my first blog which hardly seems possible as I didn't start with much confidence and wasn't sure I'd manage to last...
View ArticleTimes 26877 - TCC Qualifier heat 1 - Not the New Testament then.
A cunning puzzle for the Championships, I thought, not too difficult as a first round test but with a couple of places where you can easily get one letter wrong; I see only 30 of 88 contestants got...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 26878, 9/11/17 Playing for keeps
Not a lot of problems with this one, with a high proportion of crossword standards and a promising, if brief, collection of US states. You are to be congratulated for dedication to duty if you stopped...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 966 by Tracy
I didn’t find this at all easy and had to chip away around the grid. 10 and loi 11ac then formed the final hurdles which took some time to clear. That I made heavy weather of this, coming in at 16...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26888
The return to my original TftT userpic marks the 10th anniversary this week of my first blog which hardly seems possible as I didn't start with much confidence and wasn't sure I'd manage to last...
View ArticleWrong solution
What happens when the Club site has a wrong solution, as it appears to for 9ac in today’s Cryptic?
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 967 by Pedro
An eminently completable crossword, but not without its various traps and difficulties if you’re a beginner. Apart from the unknown boat at 11ac and an unusual synonym for drunk (isn’t it amazing how...
View ArticleTimes 26889 - Puzzle #3 in the TCC round 1. One wrong?
Another 25 minutes of pleasure with this one, apart from 1a where I had heard of the word as a make or brand of electric guitars but not in connection with horses; and 9a where (at the time of writing...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 26890, 23/11/17 Ladies and Gentlemen...
...the story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.A bit of a quirky oddity, this one, with two answers that end with the same preposition, clubs turning up...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 968 by Izetti
I am standing in for Rolytoly this week, who is taking a slightly extended holiday, and this was a nice puzzle to blog. There was some chewy General Knowledge (1a, 5a, 22a and possibly 18d for the...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 969 by Rongo - Great! Super!! Brill!!!
I found this a bit of a testing little number from Rongo with some tricky clues and a couple of traps for the unwary to fall into. Like I did, as you will see. It took me about 8 minutes, which is a...
View ArticleTimes 26,891 - Better 9ac Than Never
Friends, I must ask for your your latitude this morning as the kids need to be got to school at 8.30 and I only started the crosswords at 8am... so I'll be giving proper attention to this blog up...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 26886 - Saturday, 18 November 2017. It’s an Enigma.
A bit harder than last week I thought, and more exotica, but I got there without ever being driven to desperation.There were lots of clues I liked, but my clue of the day is 7dn for the reference to...
View ArticleJumbo 1293
This was mostly straightforward, but I am afraid I have a big issue with 2D where I cannot separate two possible solutions. One is slightly favoured by the wordplay, the other favoured by the final...
View ArticleSunday Times 4773 by Dean Mayer
The recent run of (relatively speaking) gentle ST puzzles continued with this enjoyable offering from Dean. The trademark concise and elegant cluing was there as always, but for once your 'umble...
View ArticleMephisto 2986 - by Don Manley
A straightforward solve of average difficultyIn the blog, the definition in the clue is underlined and followed by the answer; the parsing; any commentsACROSS1 Infection restricting any number,...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 962 by Hurley
I thought this was a particularly good QC from Hurley, containing a mix of some straightforward fare to help everyone on their way, and some trickier stuff to stretch the old hands a bit or get...
View ArticleMephisto 2986 - by Don Manley
A straightforward solve of average difficultyIn the blog, the definition in the clue is underlined and followed by the answer; the parsing; any commentsACROSS1 Infection restricting any number,...
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