Sunday Times 4576 (9 Feb 2014) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 73:18 - over several sessions.I couldn’t seem to get on the setter's wavelength with this one, but then I often seem to find that with Tim's puzzles. That's not a criticism of them, more...
View ArticleTimes 25712 - In which I get in for an answer
Solving time: 19 minutesMusic: Brahms, Piano Quintet, Richter/Borodin QuartetThis is just about as fast as I can do a puzzle. I was looking for an easy one, having been delayed a little by the...
View ArticleTimes 25,713 - Winter Weather Edition
There's a fair amount of GK here but none of it really obscure. A pleasant enough solve but not a taxing puzzle.Across1GROUP,CAPTAIN - (a cop it rang up)*; Sir Douglas Bader CBE DSO* DFC* perhaps;...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,714 - somewhere in Europe
Solving Time: 26 minutes. Having got 1ac and 1dn while the crossword was coming off the printer, I thought I was in for an easy one for once, but it was not to be. I got bogged down more than once, and...
View ArticleTimes crossword 25715: All you have to do is get all the letters in the right...
Stopped the clock after a smidge over 20 minutes. Probably should have been quicker, but decided still to do this on the night shift after a long day pottering around northern France with my 10 year...
View ArticleTimes 25,716 - Better Late Than Never
I don't know what has happened to the blog but I'm preparing an emergency oneOK - now done. Sorry it's a bit sparse. Help needed with 2D pleaseAcross1MANITOBA - MANI(TO-B)A; thing=MANIA; perhaps from...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25711 (15th Feb)
Getting there, but I'm on call today. Thought I'd have an easy day of it but got called out half an hour before I was due to start and only just finished with it! Still, ker-ching, eh? That's the main...
View ArticleSunday Times 4577 (16 Feb 2014) by Jeff Pearce
Solving time: 42:01I found this a good solid puzzle with some good clues and no complaints from me.Judging by the forum comments, I wasn't alone in my ignorance of the second definition in 19a, but the...
View ArticleMephisto 2790 by Don Manley
And another interesting but middle of the road puzzle. Across1PORCPISCE - PE=exercise surrounds (croc is)* containing P=quietly (music); an old porpoise; 10IDAEAN - I-D(A)EAN; Greek mountain; 11EUPHON...
View ArticleTimes 25718 - Ever increasing circles?
36 minutes, but one wrong (D'oh!). The left hand went in quite smartly, the right rather more slowly. An enjoyable start to the week, on a par in terms of difficulty with yesterday's mild Dean Mayer....
View ArticleTimes 25,719
The last time I blogged a daily, I started slowly and accelerated rapidly; today I was fast out of the blocks before grinding to halt in an empty SW corner. Eventually a bit of hard staring gave me...
View ArticleTimes 25720: Unknown composers and underwear
Solving time: Close to the hour.The SE was a terror spent pondering possible composers’ names. Had to look it (or them) up in the end. So you can call this a DNF if you like.Across1. CROSSROADS. CROSS...
View ArticleTimes 25721 - if I had a million 22s
Solving time : 20:32 on the club timer with more than half of it unraveling that bottom left hand side, mostly held up by the honking great cryptic definition of a word I'd never heard of at 22 across....
View ArticleClub Monthly 20161 February 2014 - All's Well that Ends Well
Solving Time: Well I am in a little difficulty here, since I printed it out as usual on 1st Feb, solved it, put it to one side pending writing the blog, and I haven't seen it since.. so I had to print...
View ArticleTimes 25722
Solving time: 44:29There was a lot of clever stuff going on here, so my time felt like a good one. It took me a while to get started, but I made fairly steady progress thereafter.I think 4a just gets...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25717 (22nd Feb)
Solved in 15:44, so about average in difficulty. I didn't realise until I came to do the blog, but there's a long run of double definitions and semi-cryptic double definitions in the middle of the...
View ArticleJumbo 1078
Really nothing too taxing in this one - and nothing to expand on so this is a straightforward list of the solutions with how to get to them from the clues.Across1 CLIPBOARD - CLIP = magazine (for a...
View ArticleSunday Times 4578 (23 Feb 2014) by Dean Mayer
Solving time: 44:32Not too difficult by Dean's standards, but no less enjoyable for it. Plenty of excellent surface readings, and clever wordplay.cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev = reversal,...
View ArticleMephisto 2791 - Tim Moorey
And now time for sports - there's an English cricketer and a soccer player in here, and reading the clues I thought there might have been another cricketer hiding in wordplay (not so but I think it's...
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