Times Cryptic No 26976 - Saturday, 03 March 2018. Happiness is a hard crossword.
Setter, take a bow … what a delight! At first pass, I could barely see how to pass a single clue, far less see any answers. All up it took me over two hours – far longer than usual – and yet I have not...
View ArticleJumbo 1310
A puzzle of perhaps average difficulty, though my mind went a complete blank on 2D and 34D until I had pretty much all the checkers in place. Nothing particularly obscure in the vocab, with words like...
View ArticleSunday Times 4788 by Dean Mayer - ça va pas, non?
59:50. Well that was an absolute stinker, the hardest Times or Sunday Times puzzle for a very long time, for me at least. I came close to giving up, but the fact I was due to blog it kept me going: the...
View ArticleMephisto 3001 - Don Manley
I did most of this in one fairly short sitting, but the top left was largely empty. Took quite a bit of poking and prodding to get the last few into place.Near the end I had to smile as the answer to 3...
View ArticleTimes 26983 - "Trains it down on the quarter past.....
Time: 41 minutesMusic: Stan Getz, Sweet RainWell, I thought this was going to be a quick one. I started off at a gallop so to speak, and put in the whole NW corner with scarcely a pause. I filled...
View ArticleQC 1045 by Hurley
Good morning happy bloggers! I am afraid I don't have much time this morning what with clearing up after yesterday's obligatory Mother (Ma, Mam, Mum, Mama, Mater, Mum, Dam, hush, sh, quiet, stum etc to...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 1046 by Tracy
Thanks to Tracy for a well crafted puzzle which required some unscrambling and contained some great clues. Whilst I think I can say that it wasn’t in the easy category, I find it difficult to say much...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26984
I solved this one in 22 minutes so I imagine some of the speed-merchants completed it before they started. I've nothing more to say at this stage so I'll just cut to the proverbial chase.As usual...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 1047 by Teazel
First of all, apologies for the supremely sparse blog - it's the result of work troubles, technical failure, and last-minuteness. I found the puzzle hard, possibly due to the aforementioned stresses,...
View ArticleTimes 26985 - apparently, philosophy is a way of life
A bit of a curate's egg, this one, quite a few easy clues and one ot two at the end which required either obscure knowledge (i.e. stuff I didn't know) or trust in the wordplay and luck to see it...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 26986 Thursday, 15 March 2018 Careless Rapture. Bravo!
The leader board would suggest that this was not as tough as I made it in my 28 minutes of struggle, and I can’t really claim that I took it steady so as to parse everything. I didn’t. I did have a few...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 1048 by Pedro
This is the first puzzle I've blogged from Pedro, and a lovely one it was too. I thought some of the surface readings were excellent, adding a rich extra layer to the answer. I particularly liked 4ac,...
View ArticleTimes Quick Crossword No 1049 by Orpheus
What a delightful crossword from Orpheus. As you will see below, I had great fun with the lovely surface readings of the clues, some of which were quite witty. There were a couple of words - 10a and an...
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Times 26,987: Not To Be Confused With Neville Shunte
Now as you may well have realised by this time my tastes in crossword puzzles run a bit more rococo than this one, but: if as a setter you are going to do something fairly straightforward and un-TLSy,...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 26982 - Saturday, 10 March 2018. A tasty number.
Much easier than last week. All done, checked and submitted in 33:16. LOI was 11ac, for no good reason – the concept came to mind quickly, but the answer hid itself in the recesses of my mind.My clue...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1311
This was very straightforward indeed, taking about 30 minutes across a couple of sessions. There do seem to be rather a lot of A+B type clues.My first in was VILLAGE, last was THROUGH TRAIN, just...
View ArticleSunday Times 4789 by David McLean
An unusually straightforward anagram at 1ac right across the grid got me off to a most encouraging start, and with the well-read earl, the heavy rock and several others on the first quick read through...
View ArticleMephisto 3002 - Tim Moorey
This puzzle is on the easy side. In the blog, the definition in the clue is underlined and followed by the answer; the parsing; any commentsACROSS1 Splash / short gaiter (4)SPAT: two meanings;4 Drinks...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 1050 by Joker
12 minutes for this, so now a week has passed since I last achieved my 10-minute target and I think I have entered a sort of vicious circle so that I am apprehensive as I start to solve and make...
View ArticleTimes 26989 - One of the fifty ways?
Time: 27 minutesMusic: Mingus at AntibesGreetings, all. I am acting tonight as a last-minute substitute for Ulaca, who is otherwise engaged. Usually, when you get a puzzle you are not normally...
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