Quick Cryptic No 379 by Teazel
Not the easiest of quickies, it took me ten minutes or so but I had to duck and dive around the grid, not just write them in from top to bottom. Only two anagrams today and one hidden word so you need...
View ArticleTimes 26,183: You Can't Wash Your Hands In A Hetero
After a short visit to the land of personal bests yesterday, I toiled my way through this one, clocking off inside the quarter hour at least but certainly not distinguishing myself. Probably because I...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26178 (15th Aug) - blimey!
Solving time 9:08! Wow, was I on form or what! I did this around 10:30am on Saturday morning, and was amazed to find myself leading the pack (excluding a few neutrinos) on the Times leaderboard. I was...
View ArticleTimes for the Times 10th Anniversary!
Pete Biddlecombe (founder of this site and currently Sunday Times Crossword editor) reminded me this week that we have an important anniversary coming up. On 2nd December this year it will be the 10th...
View ArticleSunday Times 4655 by Jeff Pearce
Quite a tricky offering, I thought. 27a was unknown to me, although the wordplay and cross checkers made it accessible (unless, like me, you had mysteriously slammed in Post at 23d!)Plenty of fun and...
View ArticleMephisto 2868 by Don Manley - Jack Regan Meets Ms Dworkin
A pleasant middle of the road puzzle with one trip down memory lane involving Regan, Carter and an old Jaguar carAcross1SLOP - two meanings 1=old word (discarded) for policeman=Bobby 2=loose garment;...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1162
Solving time of 35:36, which on the face of it puts this at the high end of "normal" without being outlandishly difficult. However, now I cast my mind back two weeks, I can't remember how much of that...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 380 by Hurley
I solved all but two clues in 8 minutes but it occurred to me that some of the answers are not easy if one doesn’t have all the necessary general knowledge. Eventually I ground to a halt and needed a...
View ArticleTimes 26185 – Happy Biffday!
Typical Monday fare, with one clue where you need to get your vowels in the right place, else you may get yourself into a lather. 25 minutes.Oh, and congratulations to Australia on winning the beer...
View ArticleTimes 26,186
13:11, so not outlandishly difficult based on that criterion (not to mention someone from these parts already solving considerably quicker); and a smooth solve with everything safely worked out before...
View ArticleQuick Crytpic No 381 by Flamamde
It seems a long time since I had one at the easier end of the spectrum to blog. Most of this went in on first pass and all was finished off just within 10 minutes. Explanations are minimised below...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 382 by Mara
I found this one a bit of a game of two halves. First quick run through the Across clues yielded a dispiriting three answers, but then a similar quick run through the Downs got almost all of them...
View ArticleTimes 26187 - a game of two halves, or four quarters
For some reason I romped away with this one, finishing the SW and NE quarters in little time at all, with a few write-ins like 8d, 13d, 15a,20a, 16d. Then the SE fell into place, once I'd unravelled...
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26188 I don't want to go on the cart.
By a considerable distance the hardest puzzle I have contended with for a very long time, taking over three qaurters of an hour. I hope that's because the cluing is truly stretching, and not because my...
View ArticleToday's Quick Cryptic?
There seems to be some doubt about who (if anyone) has arranged to cover for the regular Thursday blogger who is currently on holiday. I have therefore prepared a blog myself and I shall post it here...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 383 by Orpheus
Right, it's now 11:00 and nothing has appeared so here's the blog.This one took me 9 minutes so I scored it as the easiest for a while - since Joker's contribution last Thursday.As usual dfeintions are...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 384 by Corelli - or maybe not so quick
I did this immediately after a main TC puzzle and I have to say it wasn't the easy 5 minute write-in these things used to be; like last Friday's, it seemed to have a good few clues which needed...
View ArticleTimes 26,189: Clarence Drowns Again
Ashamed to say that I submitted this with one error - I'd done this basically back-to-back with yesterday's puzzle, after a day returning from Wales on the train with two tired and fractious tots, and...
View ArticleJumbo 1163
I must confess I don't remember much about solving this one, and there was not much discussion on the Crossword Club Forum so I will just present my analysis of the solutions.Please let me know if...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26184 (22nd August)
Solving time 12:27, so another fairly gentle one (unlike this week's, which was a half-hour monster which I submitted with an error). Anyway, I have to be elsewhere shortly, so without further ado...
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