Times 25354 - All that work at the gym pays off!
Solving time: 35 minutesMusic: Brahms, Symphony #1, Horenstein/LSOThis one was a little more challenging for me, since I both had a hard time getting started and got stuck in the NW corner for quite a...
View ArticleTimes 25-2012 Did The Cormorant Flap Its Wings?
Solving time 20 minutesHappy Christmas to one and all. I'm not expecting many visitors to the blog today but the Times have provided us addicts with our daily shot and the show must go on.A middle of...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,355 - are you getting your Five A Day?
Solving Time: 22 minutes, which seems to be about average for me at present. Fairly straightforward stuff, helped by an easy 1ac and 2dn. The only unknown for me was the French writer (as usual) but it...
View ArticleVintage Olympic Crossword 10737 - orignally October 10th 1964 (placeholder)
Blog will appear here when I get a chance to break away from Christmas duties, probably this evening.
View ArticleVintage Olympic Crossword 17801 - originally October 15th 1988 (placeholder)
Blog will appear here when I get a chance to break away from Christmas duties, probably this evening.
View ArticleTimes Crossword 21,522 26 Dec 2012 - remembering the Sydney Olympics
Solving Time: About 25 minutes, but the last five spent on 20dn. This is one of the four "Vintage Olympic cryptic puzzles" printed on the Crossword Club website today, and my second blog of the day. In...
View ArticleVintage Olympic Crossword 5734 - originally published 29 July 1948
Solving time: 17:49, but with one wrong.I'd have done better to solve this before the other Olympic puzzles while I was still fresh. But I tackled them in reverse order, and was so tired by the time I...
View ArticleTimes 25,356 - The Flying Dutchman
After my morning run to shed some extra baggage picked up in the last few days of wining and dining, this puzzle seemed rather tame... no real problems. I am trying to see whether I can improve my blog...
View ArticleTimes 25357 - Nuts and Bolts
I thought this was going to be an easy one as I raced away with the long anagrams at 4 and 11 and the partial one at 12 but my confidence was soon dented and I struggled with a word or two in every...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20147 December 2012 - Homage to Jack Vance
Solving Time: About 45 minutes in two sessions, so definitely on the easier side, as the Crossword Club statistics seem to confirm (66 correct answers at time of writing) - but still no pushover!...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic Crossword Book 16 - puzzle index
This is the third book of Times puzzles that has been published since the blog started, containing puzzles from 2008. Andy Burch from Australia has kindly put together the following index which matches...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25353 (22nd Dec)
Solving time 15:31, very slow to get started (I think 23ac was the first one in), but built upwards from there and soon had it done. Nothing too tricky apart from the wordplay to 9ac.Across1LOGISTIC -...
View ArticleJumbo 1011 - I know todays is 1014, but this was only two weeks ago, honest!
Standard fare, with a few unknown words or ideas thrown in along the way. Fell into the trap at 49D of confidently writing in BRASS with no checkers in place and then puzzled a bit over the acrosses in...
View ArticleMephisto 2730 by Don Manley - 'e baint be 'ard
A very straightforward puzzle that left me plenty of time to concentrate upon AZED's Christmas Special. Now we be farmin'....Across1MICROBUS - buggy type=microbe then change E=English to US=American;...
View ArticleTimes 25359 - Where's Patrick Moore when you need him?
Back with a bang after my holiday in England, despite the effects of a combined assault from the common cold and jetlag, clocking up a rare sub-30, if only by the narrowest margin, but with one wrong,...
View ArticleTimes 25,360
Updated update. Live Journal has been playing silly buggers all morning, so I have (eventually) published this blog in instalments, with a lot of refreshing and re-trying and re-typing. As a result,...
View ArticleTimes 25361: Old Possum’s Books of Other Animals
Solving time: 21:32After a week of temperatures close to or above 40˚C, it’s finally cooled off for blog day. Just as well, for ’tis hard to think while melting. Not a really difficult puzzle; a few...
View ArticleTimes 25362 - where's Major Tom when you need him?
Solving time : 12:37 on the club timer after a night out and watching Australia not performing particularly well on the first day of the Third Test. Things went pretty steadily until I got to the two...
View ArticleTimes 25363
Solving time: 1:17:56 over two sessionsI'm rather struck down with this novovirus thing at the moment, so I'm not sure how much my horrific time is due to my overheated brain or whether this was a...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25358 (29th Dec)
Solving time 17:42, not one of the hardest but one of the most enjoyable puzzles of the year. Many great clues but my favourites were 5D, the excellent cryptic def at 23D, and the linked pair of 4A and...
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