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Despite two answers I'd not met before (19ac, 36dn), I didn't find this too difficult, with a solving time of 21 minutes split across two sessions. There were two George Eliot references (25ac, 55ac),...
View ArticleSunday Times 4528 (10 Mar 2013) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: About 30 minutes offline.Not a particularly imaginative puzzle, this one. There were three hidden words, and five single letter removals. I noticed someone on the forum querying the...
View ArticleMephisto 2741 - Paul McKenna
Paul McKenna sent me an early version of this one to test solve, so I had a "week off" this week. I found it pretty straightforward and a fun solve, though it was a strange coincidence that I had run...
View ArticleTimes 25425 - A song and a dance
Solving time: 38Music: Clannad: Crann UllThis puzzle did not seem difficult at first, as I raced through the top half in about ten minutes, expecting a good time. While I found quite a few obvious...
View ArticleTimes 25,426 - Of Alice Bands And A Fez
Solving time 15 minutesOur run of relatively easy daily puzzles continues with this pleasant, well constructed but straightforward puzzle. The Chinese "hanzi" may be a tad obscure and Tommy Cooper will...
View ArticleTimes Crossword 25,427 - elementary, or fundamentally difficult?
Solving Time: 24 minutes, about average for me on a blogging day, though I think this is definitely harder than some recent efforts, eg yesterday. I enjoyed it a lot and thought it had some very clever...
View ArticleTimes 25428 - Spotted Youngsters
What a delightful morning's work-out. Cryptic clues with definitions that are cryptic in their own right. Nearly an hour with much time spent trying to unravel the wordplay as I know I have to explain...
View ArticleTimes 25429
36 minutes for this with 5dn and 13ac taking me over the 30 minute mark. A nice set of clues with only half a niggle and one clue perhaps not entirely understood.Across1FAWN - W (wicket) inside FAN...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1025 (9 Mar 2013)
Solving time: About an hour and three quarters offline.I quite enjoyed this one, although sometimes I find these jumbos a bit of a slog. I still don't understand 47a, so I would appreciate an...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25424 (16th March) - placeholder
Sorry, PC problems have prevented me posting today. Following a hasty rebuild I should have it up later tonight.
View ArticleSunday Times 4529 (17 Mar 2013) by Jeff Pearce
Solving time: I can't give any kind of time, I'm afraid. I'm currently visiting my parents in Portugal, and my Dad had this half done when I arrived.It doesn't seem too tricky looking back on it now,...
View ArticleMephisto 2742 by Don Manley - Pussy Galore
An enjoyable puzzle of about average difficulty. I made life a little difficult for myself by managing to find three answers to 26D, the last of which was the correct one - so two feline...
View ArticleTimes 25431 - O Tempora O Mondays
Just 25 minutes, so pretty straightforward, with just a stinglet in the Yunnan corner. Not that I'm complaining... Across1 A+R+GO - might have been used by 4dn if Jason was feeling generous.3...
View ArticleTimes 25432
14:14 on the Club timer, so somewhere in the middle of the difficulty scale, and pleasantly constructed without being too obscure in any regard. Meanwhile, all I asked of England this evening was that...
View ArticleTimes 25433: What? No bra?
Solving time: 28:45Not at all at my best this morning, perhaps as a result of Australia’s miserable showing against Oman in Sydney yesterday or perhaps from the drop in interest rates on my super. But...
View ArticleTimes 25434 - Allsop?
Solving time : 8 minutes 41 seconds, which still put me at second on the leaderboard as I type, so this was on the easier side of things. There's quite a few gentle double definitions, particularly in...
View ArticleTimes 25435
Solving time: 1:10:48As you can tell from my time, I found this an enormous struggle from start to finish. There was a lot of fiendish wordplay, quite a few unusual words, and some very well disguised...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20150 March 2013 - Science Edition
Solving Time: I found this hard and it took me something like 1 1/2 hours, off and on over a few days. However the last half came in something of a rush so maybe it was me rather than the crossword,...
View ArticleJumbo 1026 - Testing..testing..1..2..3... Potemkin Chippewa and the Uveal...
This seemed to be a good puzzle, mostly due to some cleverly hidden definitions and well constructed word plays. There were also very few soundalikes, which can be controversial, and no difficult...
View ArticleSaturday Times 25430 (23rd March)
Fairly straightforward, most of it - I had it all finished except for 18ac in about 16 minutes, then took another 10 to get that one. No idea why I went blank for that, it wasn't hard. COD to 19ac,...
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