Quick Cryptic 1092 by Hawthorn
A distinctly chewy offering from Hawthorn today which I suspect will have some of our newer solvers struggling (but hopefully not complaining - the whole point is to be pushed beyond your comfort zone...
View ArticleTimes 010477 - “Any fool can turn a blind eye but who knows what the ostrich...
Today's puzzle is online in place of the second TCC qualifier, in the paper, which I shall blog after the closing date (I expect on 24th May). This one, based on its serial number, dates from April...
View ArticleTimes 27040 - a little off the sides
Solving time: 18:47. That's pretty slow for me, and there's some tricky stuff in here, but I don't know if I have ever agonized over an answer like I have 1 down. The second word seemed to fit part of...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 1093 by Hurley
A plethora of geographical questions here (10, 11, 12, 22 across and 4 and 5 down), which together with some very simple hidden and other relatively easy clues made for a fast time, at least for me, at...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 1094 by Pedro
Last time I completely misjudged the mood of the room and praised a puzzle that you all thought was a stinker. This week, I'm going to stick my neck out again and risk my remaining shreds of...
View ArticleTimes 27,041: Glass Half Empty / Glass Half Full
[Whoops - managed to post this to my own blog instead of the community first thing this morning by mistake. Sorry about the delay!]A straightforward puzzle by recent standards, with a not unpleasant...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 27036 - Saturday, 12 May 2018. Rugola salad?
This was fairly straightforward. I struggled a bit with the salad ingredient at 17ac – not rugola, of course – but otherwise progress was steady. The long anagrams down the left and across the bottom...
View ArticleJumbo 1321
This took me 55 minutes all told so that would put it on the slightly tricky side of average and I thought there was some extremely good stuff here, including plenty of very neat wordplay and a decent...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic Jumbo No 1322 - 7th May
A fairly gentle Jumbo for the Bank Holiday Monday after the rather trickier Saturday pachyderm. Nothing too difficult or obscure today - I even knew the ice skating twizzle at 1d, but one or two clues...
View ArticleSunday Times 4798 by David McLean
17:18. I felt I made very heavy weather of this. I solved about half of it very quickly indeed, but then slowed to a crawl. Broadly speaking I found the north-east a lot easier than the south-west, but...
View ArticleMephisto 3011 - Tim Moorey
I didn't have too much difficulty with this one, and I thought the design of the grid was very solver friendly, with a lot of thre letter strings in checked letters.It was an interesting choice of wor...
View ArticleTimes 27043 - "On my foot!"
Time: 22 minutesMusic: Chopin, Polinaises, PolliniThis was a relatively straightforward Monday puzzle that should not present much difficulty, with a number of chestnuts and clues suitable for the...
View ArticleQC 1095 by Grumpy
Oh the shame! I am sorry everybody, I've had such a busy weekend that I had forgotten I was on duty this morning and have been tidying up admin tasks since 7.00 am instead of doing this! I'm only going...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 1096 by Mara
A lot of multiple word play clues, many anagrams, made this on the hard side for me today - 16 minutes to complete. Thinking of a comparison to the main 15 X 15 puzzle, I could only dream of completing...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 27044
My solving time was off the scale yet again and I had a one letter error in an unknown answer. Quite a few unknowns for me today, amongst a number of very easy ones.As usual definitions are underlined...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 1097 by Felix
I've finally got round to using mohn's excellent script and instructions to post this blog - kudos to him for solving that puzzle! I'm very glad that I can now show clues in blue, as I've come to agree...
View ArticleTimes 27045 - Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1
Nothing too exotic or obscure today - an easier puzzle, (edit: I thought so but apparently not so easy!) I suspect there are some fast times and a relatively low score on the SNITCH. It took me around...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic No 27046 Thursday, 24 May 2018 Mixed blessings (mine's a G&T)
With 1 across securely in place, I was of course strongly tempted to write up the entire blog in the style of a cocktail recipe book, which I think would be possible but might well get tedious before...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 1098 by Teazel
Somewhat unusual solve for me today: I was getting through the acrosses rightly, with every one solved, so was busy anticipating an extremely rare perfect solve, only to come unstuck at each of the...
View ArticleTimes 27039 - 2nd TCC Qualifier - Bulgaria revisited
I thought this one was a degree or two more difficult than the first qualifier, it took me longer, 26 minutes, so I'd have exactly 20 minutes remaining to finish the third one and put my hand up, if I...
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