Mephisto 2850 by Don Manley
Another unusual grid with only 15 across clues but 21 downs - it's almost four little puzzles bolted together. Not an indirect anagram in sight in a pleasant middle of the road offering.Across1APPARAT...
View ArticleJumbo 1141 - The one before the bank holiday Monday one !
Not sure if it was the surroundings of a bank holiday weekend, the weather, or the puzzle, but this was lightning quick. Probably my quickest ever, possibly sub 20 mins. A lot of the harder wordplay...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic 290 by Tracy
I wonder how this one will go down. I found some of it quite tough and in several cases needed more than a couple of checkers to come up with the right answer - 1dn being the trickiest of all and my...
View ArticleTimes 26077 – A Shrub Too Far
Some very nice stuff here, despite one bit of parsing that eludes me, not to mention one shrub that made me feel a right Albert. 46 minutes notwithstanding all that. ACROSS1. MANDRAGORA – DRAG (‘pest”)...
View ArticleTimes 26,078
Clock stopped at 12:20 for a puzzle where the wordplay was very accurate, and the required knowledge fell comfortably within my compass - some religious studies, a bit of classics, the usual sport, and...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 291 by Mara
At first sight there seem to be a lot of clues at the easier end of the spectrum. I ended up in my medium bracket (12 minutes) - longer than yesterday's which seemed harder. If you like anagrams you're...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26079 - coming along
This is an advance post just to say I am on an aeroplane at 6.30 a.m. Wednesday, then two more FlyBe planes before in theory arriving home in early afternoon. I'll attempt to solve the puzzle in...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 292 by Flamande
Nice puzzle, so thanks to our setter Flamande. I was going to say it was at the easier end of the spectrum: my only reservation on that assessment would be that there are quite a few abbreviations in...
View ArticleTimes 26080 - look at that slut in the fourth row!
Solving time : 14:55 - I think I made a meal of this one near the end, really struggling to get the last two entries (both of which were proper names not close to the front of my mind) while trying to...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 293 by Izetti
Morning everyone! Solving time: easy to middling.The Don is gracing us with his presence today with a pleasant solve that one or two solvers may feel has unusual words. The usual mix of staunch...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 294 by Corelli
Well, inspired by Verlaine's recent personae changes, I thought I'd change my avatar to something more relevant; but as nobody has commented on my hi-jacking of good old Rip Kirby - either with praise...
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Times 26,081: Not Very 8D 15D
It is a sad and reduced verlaine you see before you today - for the past week I've been all but confined to my bed, tossing and turning in the throes of fevers and hallucinations, due to coming down...
View ArticleApril 2015 Club Monthly 20175
Middle of the range, this one, under the hour but not by much. Lots of good stuff as usual, my favourite moment of the month. Unfortunately however I can't parse 24ac properly, can you?cd = cryptic...
View ArticleJumbo 1143
Just one very obscure (to me) tree, but the rest of the solutions were reasonably straightforward.Across1 GO THROUGH - GOTH = someone dressed in black, ROUGH = violent type6 PEDLARS - sounds like...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26076 (18th April)
Fairly quick but enjoyable solve in 13:25. Got off to a bad start by putting MEOW in for "catcall" at 1D without reading the rest of the clue, but that was soon put right and there were no other...
View ArticleMephisto 2851 - Tim Moorey
Hi Mephistfans. Another week, more barred-grid clues to obscure words for you to unravel. My first pass through of this one yielded a lot of question marks, which means words I need to look up in the...
View ArticleSunday Times 4638 by Dean Mayer
42:59. Judging by times on the club site I seem to have struggled more than others with this, and I certainly found it a real stinker. It's a sign of how off the wavelength I was that I couldn't...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 295 by Pedro
A pretty straightforward Quicky today with nothing, I think, likely to cause major delays. I'll give my COD to 14D.Wikipedia tells me that today is the feast day of the Italian Saint Zita who, amongst...
View ArticleTimes 26083 - Ten men, ton men, pen men, pun men!
Solving time: 38 minutesMusic: Bruch, Scottish Fantasy, Grumiaux/Wallberg/New PhilharmoniaThis one looks like another rather tough Monday puzzle to me. There are still a couple of clues I haven't...
View ArticleTimes 26084
26 minutes, so another straightforward solve and the second within my 30 minute target this week, including all the parsing. There's nothing more to say really so I'll get straight on with the blog...*...
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