Quick Cryptic 38 by Orpheus
I've blogged an Orpheus crossword before, and this one was pretty similar in style. Perhaps on the easier side, but some will be grateful for that after yesterday's tricky offering. Nice clueing with...
View ArticleHard Times (geddit?)
We have a blogging problem or three - Dave Perry, who does every other Friday, every Sunday, and one in five Jumbos - has had a stroke and will be out of action for the near future. (By the way, I've...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic Number 39 by Mara
Hello everyone.Time taken: medium It's that time of the week again and we have a lovely puzzle today which was a pleasure to solve. Think I can work out the identity of our setter from the elegance of...
View Article25775 A very peculiar practice
Less than 10 minutes for this one, so look out for some whizzo times, and then have a go at the Quickie for something a bit more challenging. Well, I say ten minutes. It was for everything except the...
View ArticleTimes 25776 - Blogged Out
This was a classic puzzle of two halves for me. The bottom half and the two long Down answers went in smoothly and tidily but then I ground to a halt and had real problems making progress in the top...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No. 40 by Grumpy
I seem to be meeting Grumpy more often than not on Fridays now. This one seems to be continuing the trend of increasing difficulty for the Quickies, I hope the debutantes are keeping up!It's a fair,...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25771 (26th April)
Solving time 17:42, slowed down a bit at the end by 8dn for some reason. Hats off to the setter for 2dn and 19dn for making me laugh, and for 1ac and 26ac for the "wordplay-in-answer" device, which I...
View ArticleJumbo 1087 - placeholder
With one Bank Holiday activity and another, I expect to post the blog in the next 24 hours.
View ArticleSunday Times 4587 – Nice and Easy Does It
A group of us are taking over the reins here in the Sunday slot while Dave is convalescing. This is about as close as Dean Mayer gets to a simple puzzle – simple, but elegant and most enjoyable. 34...
View ArticleMephisto 2800 by Tim Moorey - From Bosch to Rabbie
A very enjoyable, reasonably tough, solve. Some interesting words and more unusal anagrinds and containment indicators with a couple of very good "lift and separate" clues. I didn't know the literary...
View ArticleJumbo 1088
24:19 on the Club Timer. I normally do the Jumbo on paper first and don't time myself but when this one came out I was working in the US so did it online.I have reservations about the clue for 26A as...
View ArticleTimes Quickie 41 set by Hurley
As usual on a Monday the puzzle on the Times button is a week out of date so here's the link to today's for those unable to find it by other means:...
View ArticleTimes 25778 - Slap and Tickle
Not too much to tax the seasoned solver here, but a smattering of Classics and a knotty plant to trip perchance the unwary, and an unusual grid to please the gridologists. A little cricket and a whiff...
View ArticleTimes 25,779 - Without a Clue
So, here's a new one, clock stopped at - well, actually it hasn't stopped yet as I have been waiting in the hope that 15 across might suddenly appear if I keep saving and reloading (and yes, I realise...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic no 42 by Tracy
The link isn't working so I found it here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140506/148/Cracking crossword, Gromit (thank-you Tracy) which I feel can be enjoyed by both oldie and newbie....
View ArticleTimes 25780: A slight religious flavour
Solving time: 37:04Took my time over this and had my mind on more serious problems than the puzzle itself. Fair bit of dictionary work required post-solve. And, to boot, there’s one answer I don’t...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No. 43 by Teazel
The last few days have seen an increasing degree of difficulty for the Quickie, as if the setters had decided that 8 weeks was enough time to get the newcomers to develop their skills and now is the...
View ArticleTimes 25781 - anything you can do I can do 7ly
Solving time : 19:49, but with two errors. One I can see immediately as a typo, the other may take a little more finding. This is a tough one, there's an opera clued by an anagram with mostly unhelpful...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 44 by Flamande
Solving time: StraightforwardAfter a couple of days of slightly trickier puzzles, we have a nice straightforward one that should make the newer solvers a little more comfortable.When talking to the...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 25782 - Well I'll be darned...
I wasn't expecting to be blogging tonight but Andy tells me that the sub who was to cover for Dave P is incommunicado at the moment so you're stuck with me I'm afraid. I must admit I was a bit...
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