Times 26059 - Welcome, British Summer Time!
Solving time: 31 minutesMusic: Brahms, Symphony #2, Monteux/Vienna PhilharmonicYes, the US and the UK are back to five hours difference, so I'm able to print and solve the puzzle at 7 PM every night....
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 276 by Tracy
I didn't record a time for this one but it must have been on the long side. A tricky offering by Tracy today but a very enjoyable one. Some excellent clues which required a deal of working through plus...
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Times 26,060
I'm standing in for jackkt today, as he's temporarily indisposed, but, let us hope, back soon and 100%. Happily, I was right on the wavelength with today's offering, and stopped the clock at 12:10...
View ArticleTimes 26061 - not duck soup for me
I was up and about early, not least because the neighbour was about to crank up his cement mixer adjacent to my car so it needed moving to a place of refuge; I'd hoped for a speedy solve and plenty of...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 277 by Joker
Apologies for the delay in posting – with little hope of finding this puzzle in advance, Murphy’s law dictates that something will crop up in the morning.I found this fairly straightforward, except for...
View Article26062 April Fools are supposed to be completed by midday, I thought
I thought this was going to be a doddle, one of those where the first two across clues go straight in along with most of the intersecting ones. But somehow the time stretched out to just over 20...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 278 by Grumpy - Double (definition) Trouble
Hello allThanks to everyone for covering for me for the past few weeks. OU Residential School and hospital appts have hijacked my Thursdays.Now fitted with my hearing aids once more, I can now cope...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 279 by Mara
I thought this was a bit harder than the usual quickie, with one or two clues fit for the main puzzle, although now I come to write the explanations it all seems easy enough except for 23a; it took me...
View ArticleTimes 26,063: If Solving Be The Food Of Love
I entered into debate earlier this week about the generally held opinion that the Friday puzzle is, on average, harder than the rest; today's did nothing much to help convince me that this is the case....
View ArticleSaturday Times 26058 (March 28)
At 26.37 this took me a bit longer than last week's, for no obvious reason. Some good misdirection, perhaps aimed at fooling the more experienced solvers into thinking they're looking for the usual...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1139
Happy Easter, everyone!I found this puzzle fairly straightforward, and it didn't include too many obscure answers or references; I don't think 25ac is widely used except by anatomists, and I'd not come...
View ArticleSunday Times 4635 by Dean Mayer - The Americano
A distinctly stateside flavour this week, with nary a short third man or a jam roly-poly in sight (although we do have a UK TV presenter on parade). Mr. Mayer provides us with a bit of gridiron, a...
View ArticleMephisto 2848 by Tim Moorey - Happy Birthday Macnutt
A slightly strange grid with 20 across clues and only 16 down and hence quite a number of 4 letter words.This puzzle appeared on 29th March which was Ximenes' birthday and I have two queries arising...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 280 by Orpheus
9 minutes. I think most solvers will find this one fairly straightforward apart from a reference to a somewhat obscure 15th century poet, a French department and a crossword favourite that some newbies...
View ArticleTimes 26065 - A Piece of the Proverbial
A busy morning means I'll get to this in the afternoon (HK time), so the blog should be up by 9am UK time.Well, that wasn't too painful. Just 14 minutes, in fact, so expect something Bannisteresque...
View ArticleQuick Crtyptic No 281 by Izetti
A pleasant offering which took 9 minutes - so, on the easy side but not without interest including the odd bird, a romancer, people from Media (not journalists this time) and some nautical...
View ArticleTimes 26,066
Clock stopped at 15:41 for an interesting and not entirely straightforward puzzle - there was a lot of "Hmmm, that rings a bell" with some clues, and more than one answer went in without full...
View ArticleTmes Quick Cryptic 282 by Des
Must admit I've pretty much given up on trying to predict the degree of difficulty of the Quickies, having been proven to have been out of step with the consensus view on many occasions of late!...
View ArticleTimes 26067 - top quality meat
On blog days I often feel that the pleasure of solving a fine puzzle is outweighed by the fear - well, the slight worry, perhaps - of not being able to manage it and having to ask for light to be shed...
View ArticleTimes 26068 - anger, animals and the elderly
Solving time : 11:02 on the club timer and holy moley there's someone with a 5-minuter already, so I am in second! I guess this confirms my suspicion that it's on the easier side and if you twig the...
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