Times 25724 - Love is just a one-letter word
Solving time: 11 minutesMusic: Finzi - A Severn Rhapsody, Introit, Nocture, Prelude, Three Soliloquies, Romance, The Fall of the Leaf, Boult/LSOPlease take note of today's musical program. Excuses will...
View ArticleTimes 25,725 - Chewy Toffee Flavour
20 minutes and not a lot to say really. The bird may be unknown to some but I expect some fast times today.On edit: clearly I got that wrong. Luckily I was in tune with the setter because most others...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,726 - tutti-frutti?
Solving Time: 26 minutes.. so a bit harder than average but not unduly so. As we saw yesterday it can be hard to judge a crossword mid-blog, as it were.. but I thought this a decent effort, let down by...
View ArticleVanilla? Chewy toffee? Tutti Frutti? Neither, but a pleasant enough picnic....
A rather exciting sub-10 for me, and even then I wasn't the first on the board having started at midnight local time. I'd like to suggest there's a bit of an outdoor party theme trying to make itself...
View ArticleTimes 25728
Some of this was straightforward and I thought for a while I might be in for an easy ride, but several clues put up quite a lot of resistance and time gradually slipped away from me. In the end I...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25723 (1st March) - and lots of opportunities for new bloggers.
Solving time 16:44, quite tricky in places with a couple of unexpected partial words (BIOG, IMPROV), but nothing too obscure and I should have been quicker than that. Now then, I was surprised to read...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1079
A fairly straightforward Jumbo, I thought, with quite a high proportion of double definitions/indications. A few of the answers - possibly ALCALDE, CICERONE, PENEPLAIN - may not be familiar to...
View ArticleMephisto 2792 by Paul McKenna
A largely straightforward puzzle in which I was glad I didn't need to know the name of any international tiddlywink playersAcross1FISTULA - (fault is)*; 7SCANTY - S(CANT)Y; Seychelles=SY; 12MIRTHLESS -...
View ArticleSunday Times 4579 (2 Mar 2014) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 51:44Not a bad test. There were a couple of potential traps for the unwary where similar words would fit the checkers - 16a and 17d, but both were clear from the wordplay. I stumbled over...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic blogging
So far we have the following volunteers to blog the new Quick Cryptic:ianb21, jackkt, mohn2, nick_the_novice, william_j_s, macavity123 and allan_sidcup.From what I've heard it's initially going to be...
View ArticleTimes 25730 - Carry On, Sister!
41 minutes, finishing, unusually, with two multi-word answers, both of which were very good. A very nice offering from Jeff Pearce yesterday for those who may have missed it. Oops, I got one (down)...
View ArticleTIMES (not so) QUICKIE No. 1 set by Des
Firstly I'd like to say that I welcome this addition to the Times range of puzzles and I find it encouraging that it appears to demonstrate a commitment to the future.Having said that I have a few...
View ArticleTimes 25,731
Stopped the clock at 11:15 on what I thought was a very pleasant but not too demanding puzzle (with the caveat that it's obviously impossible to tell in advance if everyone else will think the same, as...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic (Number 2) - Vicars and Tarts
Completed via the web edition of the paper because that is all my subscription permits. Pleased to see correct letter counts for multiple word solutions but disappointed not to see a print button.I...
View ArticleTimes 25732: A 17ac stravaig in warmish morning weather … and 15ac to all our...
Solving time: 29:11Took my time this morning. Just strolling through this, bit by bit, and writing down the parsings along the way. Needed a coffee to finish off in the top right. Suspect the...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 3 - Grumpy Setter, Grumpy Blogger!
Well, that was fun! Having carefully planned the day around ensuring adequate time to complete the blog before breakfast time for the UK contingent (i.e. by late afternoon here in Sydney), I was...
View ArticleTimes 25733 - bet the easy crossword is going to look dead easy today!
Solving time : 26:45 - which has to rank as one of my slowest solves ever, and I was on the verge of going and leaving this, but I have limited computer batter life and of course left my charger at...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 4 by Flamande - Pleasantly strolling
Solving time: 6 1/2 minutes.Hello everyone, long-time lurker, occasional poster, inveterate solver here. This was a nice pleasant stroll with nothing too challenging for me. I solved it on line so was...
View ArticleTimes 25734
Solving time: About 50 minutes.This felt like quite a tricky one. I started it last night, but only got about a third of the way through in half an hour. So I went to bed and got up early to finish...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic (Number 5)
I have been nervous all week about having to fill an entire grid with fully parsed clues, and I think that the pressure didn’t help my solving time (I wonder how long I can use that excuse!). You...
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