Sunday Times 4572 (12 Jan 2014) by Dean Mayer
Solving time: 57:25A tough one from Dean this week. I wasn't keen on 11a at all, and 24a wasn't great either. But otherwise I thought there was plenty of good stuff here. I liked the Catherine Tate...
View ArticleMephisto 2785 - Tim Moorey
This was a rather odd solve for me - I was held up a lot in the top left by thinking of an answer early on that fit one half of the definition just fine, but the other half wasn't in Chambers (it's a...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25681 (11th Jan)
Sorry this is a day late. Solved in about 15 mins on the train on Wednesday evening. 1ac went straight in, but then I went blank for a bit and the next one in was 28ac. Luckily I sped up a bit after...
View ArticleTimes Crossword Book 17 Blog Index
Just received from Andy Burch (aka "Andy from Oz") - very useful if you have Times Book 17, which has puzzles from 2009. Also quite interesting to browse through some of the old blogs again. I'll put...
View ArticleTimes 25688 - A bargain at half the price!
Solving time: 51 minutesMusic: Chopin, Ballades, ArrauAs you can see, this one gave me a little trouble. I had most of it filled in after 25 minutes, but two of the corners proved a bit stubborn....
View ArticleTimes 25,689
Reasonably straightforward today with only the Noel Coward work unknown to me. Most of the definitions are well signposted so that 10A for example can be entered without working out the cryptic. 20...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,690 - S or Z?
Solving Time: I breezed through this comfortably in 22 minutes, but on blithely typing and submitting it, was taken aback to be told I had two errors. I do hate it when that happens. What is the point...
View Article25691 Delightful from top to bottom
14' 41", which turned out to be just under 2 Gilhams, but then I was taking it steady and trying to make sure everything made sense. No artists, no cricket, no poets, no painters despite an old master,...
View ArticleTIMES 25692 - Aharr, Jim Lad!
I solved all but four clues in the SE corner within 30 minutes parsing as I went, but I needed another 15 to finish it off with 17dn and 19ac accounting for the last 10 of these. I thought this was an...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25687 (18th Jan)
Solving time 16:03, although that was without full parsing of some of the clues. Some very convoluted wordplay in this one, e.g. 1ac, 9ac, 25ac, 4dn, 14dn. Despite that the surface readings all made...
View ArticleJumbo 1073
Nothing particularly noteworthy here, apart from more double definition type clues than usual.I did not note my time for solvingAcross1 IN PASSING - double definition6 HANDS-ON - double definition10...
View ArticleMephisto 2786 by Paul McKenna
An interesting and entertaining Mephisto. I have one query at 6D where I'm missing a piece of the parsing.Across1AGHAST - AGHA-ST; 5LOVAGE - LOV(A-G)E; G=German; drink from the west country;...
View ArticleSunday Times 4573 (19 Jan 2014) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 52:55This one took me a while, but looking back on it, I'm not entirely sure why. It all seems quite straightforward now. 1a took me a while to unravel as the anagram is particularly...
View ArticleTimes 25694 - Sting in the horn?
Another gentle start to the week, unless like me you were held up by the 1s. That said, a very enjoyable puzzle, which may be safely added to that burgeoning category, 'suitable for those seeking to...
View ArticleTimes 25,695 - The Blog What I Wrote
11:54 for a puzzle which I don't think will pose insuperable problems for too many solvers. Where I wasn't certain of the necessary vocabulary (a couple of clues), the wordplay pointed me in only one...
View ArticleTimes 25696: More Sitzfleisch!
Solving time: 28:44Shouldn’t present too many problems for the regular crowd; but I fell into trouble in the SW and NE corners, trying to scribble the parsings as I went. I think I have them all pretty...
View ArticleTimes 25697 - bring on the neutrinos
Solving time : 18:28, which puts me not just first on the leaderboard, but as of right now, only on the leaderboard! I believe we may have our tricksy one for the week. There's one answer where I did...
View ArticleTimes 25698
Solving time: 46:26I consider anything less than hour to be a good result on a blogging night, so I'm quite happy with this time. I went through the NW corner quite quickly, then slowed down on the RHS...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20148 January 2013 - spot the error
Solving Time: 44 minutes and I was very pleased with that; it is quick for me, and by some quirk of chance I actually knew most of the answers, such as 2dn which has been used here before.. smugly, I...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1074
Another puzzle with several complex, clever clues.As usual, * indicates an anagram.Across1CORSICA - C + OR, + SIC (indicated by 'so'), + Ago5EXCHANGE - sEX CHANGE9ARCTIC - TICk by ARC13PAYS LIP SERVICE...
View Article