Times 25387 - An excellent end to the week.
Solving time: 47:53 - Held up a bit by having a wrong answer at 23.I don't know who the compiler is here, but I find it very reminiscent of the sort of puzzle that Sunday solvers are used to expecting...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20148 January 2013
Solving Time: about 50 minutes, ie just a fraction quicker than average for me. This blog is a bit later than usual, because entries have to be in by the last Thursday of the month, ie yesterday. So...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25382 (26th Jan)
No time for this one as I solved it on the train but my phone was dead so I had no stopwatch. Around the 20-minute mark though. Another very good puzzle, COD for me 10ac.Across1OFF-WHITE - (c)OFFE(e)...
View ArticleSunday Times 4522 (27 Jan 2013) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 42:25On the whole, I found this a pretty good puzzle, with some very good clues contained within. There were a few I wasn't keen on, but they're all perfectly sound, so I have no real...
View ArticleMephisto 2735 - Paul McKenna
Sometimes I think Paul McKenna knows my schedule better than I do. A few months ago he sent me a puzzle asking if I could proofread, check wordplay and anagrams. Not only that, but he sent it to me on...
View ArticleJumbo 1018
Apologies for the delay in posting this. The periods I had set aside to compile it were unexpectedly taken up by other commitments.I did not record a time but I recall this being quite straightforward....
View ArticleTimes 25389 - The Doorman's Tale
Solving time: 47 minutesMusic: Mozart, Sinfonia Concertante, Davis/LSOA bit of a more difficult Monday puzzle, as I made slow but steady progress around the grid. There were a couple of big easy ones...
View ArticleTimes 25,390 - A Potpourri
Solving time 25 minutesOn a day that sees a Government publish a radical bill for which it has absolutely no mandate after a leading MP admits trying to pevert the course of justice,a very enjoyable...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,391
Solving Time: About 40 minutes, but I'm not feeling good today having done something painful to my back. You only discover just how many activities involve bending, when you no longer can. The...
View ArticleTimes 25,392 - Phew! What A Relief
Yesterday, I read the clues twice and could not get started and when I finally managed to squeeze out the last answer, the sun was high in the sky ... such was its degree of difficulty to me. It was...
View ArticlePhew too!
Following on from Wednesday's ordeal I'm as relieved as Uncle Yap yesterday to have got off quite lightly on my blogging day. This is mostly straightforward stuff with only one unknown but easily...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1019
Not too difficult, I thought - it took me 20 minutes, including the time needed to check the answers to 40ac and 20dn (see comments below). One of these days I really am going to sit down and learn all...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25388 (2nd Feb)
Easiest Saturday puzzle for a long time, solved in 10:30. Would have been sub-ten too, but for 21dn (my COD), which I knew had to be DEFEND but took ages to see how it worked!Across1LONG JUMPER -...
View ArticleSunday Times 4523 (3 Feb 2013) by Jeff Pearce
Solving time: 44:08This wasn't particularly to my taste, I'm afraid. It wasn't too difficult, although there were a few where I struggled to understand the wordplay until post-solve. There were a few...
View ArticleMephisto 2736 by Don Manley
A straightforward puzzleAcross1MUCOR - MUC(k)-OR; 5APOCOPE - A-PO(CO)PE; CO=Conscientous Objector; 11ALABAMAN - A-LAB-A-MAN; 12NESS - (anything) + NESs = a quality eg softness; 13PELLUCID -...
View ArticleTimes 25395 - The blogger's dilemma
Solving time: 65 minutesMusic: Mozart, Piano Sonatas, EschenbachThis one was really tough for me, and I'm not entirely certain of some of the answers. If there is anything a blogger hates, it's having...
View ArticleTimes 25,396
14:32 on the club timer; I banged in 1 across and 6 across straight away, which always settles the blogger's nerves, and after that it all went smoothly and enjoyably, apart from a brief hold up at the...
View ArticleTimes 25397: Capital, capital! (as Marx said when Engels’s cheques arrived)
Solving time: 18:12Should have been quicker in retrospect, strangely held up by 1ac and 4dn! Put this down to blogger’s nerves eh? Otherwise a fairly straight solve much aided by no fewer than four...
View ArticleTimes 25398 - happy VD!
Solving time : 20:12 on the club timer with a silly typo and a few minutes break in the middle. Nothing too too difficult, though I needed to look up the wordplay on 25 across in order to get the blog...
View ArticleTimes 25399 - Simply a nightmare
Solving time: 69:45 - With two wrong apparently, although I can't for the life of me see where one of them is.That was a real struggle from start to finish. There were a couple of words I didn't know -...
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