Jumbo 1176 - Placeholder.
Similar to the post immediately below. Only just remembered its due this weekend from noticing the current one is 1178! This usually doesnt matter when I attempt the current one on a Saturday...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26263
28 minutes for this one. I blogged this as a last-minute stand-in so I haven't written much, but please ask if further explanations are required.{deletions} [indicators]Across1CAPSICUM - CAP (beat),...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 445 by Hurley
An odd grid, with two clues (11A and 18A) that didn't actually need to be solved because their solutions could be completely filled in via their crossing answers, which always feels like a bit of a...
View ArticleTimes Cryptic 26264
I thought I was heading for a record time on this one as I solved so many clues at the first reading, but then I hit a wall with the long Down clues unsolved and one of the long Acrosses and it took me...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic No 446 by Mara
A good romp today with Mara - a couple, of long anagrams which always hold me up - but not as long as the LOI intersection of 5dn and 15ac. Some very enjoyable clues (COD 2dn stands out) and a hint of...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic Number 447 by Flamande
A nice, straightforward crossword. Even including some unknown references (as the spy and the poet were to me) it should not take so long to solve that fun gives way to inconvenience.Definitions...
View ArticleChampionship 2015, Preliminary Two, Puzzle one - cogito, cogito...
Possibly because I was trying to do all three of this set of Qualifying puzzles in pseudo-exam conditions within a timeframe, I found this a bit of a slog; not especially difficult but with plenty of...
View Article26266 Reduced price offer in advance of Black Friday: a farthing for a clue.
22 minutes and 4 seconds, so dragging my feet somewhat. This was a crossword where, I think more than usually, you had to pay very close attention to where the dividing lines in the clues were, with...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 448 by Corelli
I'm not sure if our esteemed Thursday blogger is around to cover the puzzle today. He may be delayed at a hospital appointment. If nothing has appeared by 1:30 I shall put up an emergency blog. In the...
View ArticleClub Monthly 20182 - November 2015
This was much harder than last month's! I did have most of it done after an hour, but mopping up the odd bits might have taken nearly as long again. I had trouble pinning down 2dn, partly because there...
View ArticleAccess to today's Quick Cryptic
I note that the Times have seen fit to mess about with the Quick Cryptic layout (apparently without warning or consultation) so that, if accessing it via the button on the Puzzles page and depending...
View ArticleQuick Crossword 449 by Orpheus
A mostly straightforward solve this week. I thought 8 across a clever clue, first in its misdirecting surface reading and then in causing me to try think of words meaning accommodate to write...
View ArticleTimes 26,267: {N}emesis
A short, sweet and late blog from me again this week, as I managed to poison myself last night (dodgy 22dn may have been involved) so I've spent much of the morning tossing my 3dns, wishing that I...
View ArticleSaturday Times 26262 (21st Nov)
13:50 so not too hard. I'm really pushed for time today so apologies for the brevity. I might come back and fill it out a bit later.Across1Dutch artist not initially covering my day in the sun?...
View ArticleTimes Jumbo 1177
Solving time of 22:35, suggesting something very straightforward by normal Jumbo standards. Where there were things which were beyond my existing knowledge, the wordplay was perfectly clear, so no...
View ArticleSunday Times 4669 by Tim Moorey
Solved in a beer cellar in Prague with a plate of sausages and bread for sustenance - most enjoyable interlude. Several straightforward anagrams and double definitions got me off to a flying start, but...
View ArticleMephisto 2882 by Paul McKenna - We Want Chopper
This puzzle appeared on the anniversary of King Juan Carlos taking over from Franco in 1975 and "Queen" Angela Merkel taking power in 2005. Sadly neither event is remembered in this middle of the road...
View ArticleQuick Cryptic 450 by Tracy
I had to hop around the grid quite a lot whilst solving this one to keep up momentum as I needed checkers to jog my brain into action, however I completed the puzzle in 10 minutes which is just within...
View ArticleTimes 26269 - The Lady of the Lake
Solving time: 21 minutesMusic: Rimsky-Korsakov, Scherezade, Beecham/RPOThis was an embarrassing time for such an easy puzzle, but I raced through three-quarters of it in about ten minutes only to come...
View ArticleTimes 26,270
Continuing a run of mostly very straightforward puzzles, clock stopped today at 7:25, helped by all the required general knowledge / vocabulary falling within my comfort zone, and much of it quite...
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