Times Jumbo 1020 (2 Feb 2013)
Solving time: 1:27:01I struggled with this one to start with, but once I got into my stride I sped up a bit. On the whole, an enjoyable puzzle with quite a few good clues. The three &lit (or...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25394 (9th Feb)
Solving time not noted, think it was about 20 minutes. After a hectic week I didn't get to this until Wednesday or Thursday on the train, and I remember struggling a bit on the top half.Across1REVISIT...
View ArticleSunday Times 4524 (10 Feb 2013) by Dean Mayer
Solving time: 53:58A typically clever offering from Dean this week. He rarely disappoints when it's his turn. There were a couple of good &lits at 2 & 11, with 11 being so good that I'll give...
View ArticleMephisto 2737 - Tim Moorey
I found this to be one of the more tricky offerings from the Mephisto series lately. Put a couple of incorrect answers in early (11 across went through several iterations). I didn't think 3 (another...
View ArticleTimes 25401 - Give Me That Old-time Religion
After a weekend of fine geographically-orientated puzzles (Tim Moorey's excellent Sunday offering contains my clue of the month so far), a slightly trickier than usual Monday crossword, albeit one...
View ArticleTimes 25,402 Jim Whitman Meets Francis Drake
Solving time 20 minutesNothing too difficult here but a range of GK required. I'm not sure for example quite how well known either the countertenor or the castaway are let alone the Norse tree....
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,403, 20 February 2013
Solving Time: About 15 minutes, a little faster than average for a blogging day. There are one or two tricky clues, but otherwise I don't think there is much to detain the quicker solver for long. That...
View ArticleTimes 25,404 - Light & Easy
Although I like a challenge, I prefer it when the puzzle I have to blog does not have too many hard-boiled eggs. So I am extremely happy that today's offering is light and easy, well within the...
View ArticleTimes 25405 - Got away with it again!
Oh, hell, LJ seem to have removed the option for the old-look editor and I feel disoriented, so fingers crossed...This took me 36 minutes after a very slow start due to blogger's nerves. Once I got...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25400 (16th Feb)
16:53 to solve, fairly straightforward apart from the one tricky bit of wordplay that I had to come back to. A few bits of British geography might have made it harder for overseas solvers...
View ArticleSunday Times 4525 (17 Feb 2013) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 25:31 - with one mistake.On the whole I found this quite straightforward. I'm not sure if it was easy, or if I just got on to the setter's wavelength quickly. Some of the wordplay was...
View ArticleMephisto 2738 by Paul McKenna
I found this a little harder than of late. This is the first puzzle for some time that I failed to solve from top to bottom. I ended up solving from the bottom upwards, which always makes things a...
View ArticleJumbo 1021 - 59 straightforward clues and an absolute stinker !
Did this a week late, having missed the weekend in question. It was fairly straightforward, probably because it seemed to have far fewer cryptic clues than usual, and mostly clear definitions, however...
View ArticleTimes 25407 - "Be sure to hide the fishes....
Solving time: 35 minutesMusic: Mahler, Symphony #1, Horenstein/LSO (yes, on Unicorn Records) This should have been quite an easy puzzle. It is heavily dependent on general knowledge, and in general, I...
View ArticleTimes 25,408
15:04 on the Club timer; as this included the usual blogger's Extra Time, spent checking I was at least 90% certain on my parsing of everything before submitting, I think we can classify this as being...
View ArticleTimes 25409: Senseless cheering downunder
Solving time: 27:19Getting just a tad harder as the week goes on ... for me at least. But nothing too difficult here. One trap for the over-hasty solver and a few I’ve got from the defs and will have...
View Articletimes 25410 - placeholder
I'm at a writing class late at night in the us and it will be a while until I get home and close to the times. Enjoy and comment - ill be here soon with a solution (hopefully)
View ArticlePuzzle / Clue of the Month
There won't be any further requests for your favourite clues or puzzles this year, although feel free to discuss them here anyway :)I had an email the other day from John Halpern, the organizer of the...
View ArticleTimes 25411
Solving time: 35:10Not a particularly tricky one today. One or two here had me scratching my head for a bit, but there were plenty that went in very quickly to get a good early foothold. There were a...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20149 February 2013 - Elegant words edition
Solving Time: About 1hr 20mins, a bit longer than usual though I'm not sure it is in fact any harder than last month. One thing I did notice is that this month, there seems to be an unusual number of...
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