Quick Cryptic No 412 by Teazel
Very enjoyable puzzle, with an emphasis on slightly jokey / quirky cryptic definitions rather than complex constructions and word sums (with the exception of 1ac) - a style I personally enjoy, although...
View ArticleTimes 26223
I found this a medium level puzzle and a bit of a plod; it took 35 minutes of unscrambling wordplay but nothing particularly made me nod in appreciation or chuckle. When I read it now I can't see why...
View ArticleTimes 26224 - 1 across makes perfect (and if not you can visit a 10 across)
Solving time : 12:51 on the club timer, but apparently I have one incorrect. Now that I have looked up some of the answers I seem to have found my error and it is a personal pet peeve of mine - the...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 413 by Felix
Morning allSolving time: Fair to MiddlingIt's gloomy and grotty here, but this brightened up my day somewhat. A nice friendly puzzle that contained some smile moments and one or two to make you scratch...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 414 by Rongo - pig's feet, indeed.
I enjoyed this one, it only took a few minutes but it had wit and a nice mix of clue types. Well done, Mr Rongo.On edit: It appears the alternative solution to 9a is the correct one, PEEK not PEEP;...
View ArticleTimes 26,225: Secret Birthday Message @ 9ac, 10ac?
Happy birthday to me! This one marks the last year that I can pretend to be still in my twenties via the medium of hexadecimal, so by God I'm going to make the most of it - 29 today! Go me! (So old.)As...
View ArticleJumbo 1170
A puzzle that I found slightly harder than average, perhaps because of a few bits of general knowledge, e.g. 13A and 25A, that I either didn't know or which had disappeared into the distant recesses of...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26220 (3rd Oct)
I found this a real brute of a puzzle which I tackled while tired, and stopped after 20 minutes with less than half of it done. However, I came back to it refreshed the next day and found it much...
View ArticleSunday Times 4662 by Dean Mayer - have done with childish Day-O
23:13. I found this decidedly tricky but for reasons I can't now understand. Some of it is arguably a bit stretched or loose, which might explain it in part, but I didn't notice most of this when...
View ArticleMephisto 2875 - Tim Moorey
Hmmm - well my greatest challenge here was the number of names of people, living or dead (and one where if you looked at a recent photograph, you'd be hard pressed to tell) that were used as wordplay...
View ArticleTimes Crossword Championships - the real reason most of us turn up! :-)
There will be a meeting for crossword setters and solvers at The George, Borough High Street, Southwark, London, SE1 1NH, coinciding with the annual Times Crossword Championship. The meeting will begin...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 415 by Joker
Again, apologies for the sparseness of the blog. I found this puzzle of average difficulty. I will note in passing that the HTML structure of the Quicky seems to have changed in the last 2 weeks, i.e....
View ArticleTimes 26227 - Last call for 'E'
Solving time: 41 minutesMusic: Shostakovich, Symphony #5, Freccia/I was afraid I was losing my touch, not solving much for the past three weeks, and this puzzle seemed to confirm my fears. All the...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 416 by Grumpy
I'm on my travels and won't get back to normal service until the long awaited TfTT bash in December. Comments may therefore be sparse and, in the unlikely event that wifi or time zone problems may...
View ArticleTimes 26228
My solving time was off the scale for this one, and the current small number of completed entries and times taken by regulars on the club site suggest that others are finding it difficult too. I've...
View ArticleTimes 26229: One for the arts crowd
As Jimi used to say, a “slight return”, as I fill in for Pip this morning. Nothing here to frighten the horses. Though a smattering of music and literature — with a little bit of film and painting —...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 417 by Orpheus
A brief blog due to lack of time this morning. I struggled to get into this one (1ac requiring all the checkers, and not seeing 3dn for the longest of times). Plenty to get your teeth stuck...
View Article26230 In which I find the setter a giver of grave ire test. It's ever great.
I thought long and hard about this one, dithering at the last about the poet with two candidates in mind, stopping the clock at a fairly desperate 33.29 - not a score to trouble the competition. I...
View ArticleTimes Quick Cryptic No 418 by Dazzler
Morning allCan't remember the last time I blogged a Dazzler Quick Cryptic. It was a most pleasant solve and definitely at the easier end of the scale. Nothing terribly complicated here, apart from 11...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 419 by Flamande
No quibbles with this pleasant puzzle, nothing obscure, and for once I re-entered it into the online grid to check I hadn't entered any answers wrongly.Across8EXAMINE - AXE reversed, MINE = pit; D...
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