Solving time : 30 minutes A melange of good and not so good, easy and difficult with one obscure wordplay at 3D and a couple of excellent clues ar 7D and 16D. I had no … Read more “Times 24181 It’s Giovanni Again”
Month: March 2009
Times Crossword 24180
Solving time: 24 minutes. I did it all apart from 18a in about 16 minutes, so thought I was going to get another really fast time. Mostly this was quite easy – quite a few … Read more “Times Crossword 24180”
ST 4320 (Sun 15 Mar) – Backwards analysis
Solving time: 6:25 After last week things could only improve. I’m not really a fan of this setter’s rather loose style but the majority of the nitpicks below are quibbles rather than complaints. I suspect … Read more “ST 4320 (Sun 15 Mar) – Backwards analysis”
Mephisto 2533 Mike Laws
Following on from two consecutive difficult puzzles this one was quite easy. Apart from being three words rather that two, the key clue 1A was simple as were 9D,10D and 31A both in terms of … Read more “Mephisto 2533 Mike Laws”
Saturday Times 24173 (Mar 14th)
Solving time 15:14, so about par for the course again. 21D was the obscure vocabulary of the day, but it’s a regular in barred puzzles (and came up last week somewhere), so no problems there. … Read more “Saturday Times 24173 (Mar 14th)”
Times Crossword 24178
Solving time: I was disturbed twice while solving this one and didn’t manage to steer the stopwatch successfully through the stops and starts, but I’d guess it took me around 15 minutes, and that this … Read more “Times Crossword 24178”
Jumbo 803
Jumbo 803 Solving time: 25:37 A quite easy jumbo for me, but with some interesting answers and quite a few clues to talk about, in a set with consistently good surface readings. Across 7 SUB=bus … Read more “Jumbo 803”
Times 24177
Solving time: 25 mins with one missing I think this was a tricky puzzle, but I made heavy weather of it. In the end, after spending several minutes working out the difficult 27A, I simply … Read more “Times 24177”
Times 24176
Solving time: 9:00 If this time turns out to be a good one, it’s down to an old speed-solver’s trick – gambling on answers from wordplay the def. and checking letters, without full understanding of … Read more “Times 24176”
Times 24,175 Top of the morning to ya..
24:21 .. A lot harder than yesterday’s and maybe a bit more to discuss. I can’t fully explain 11a but I’m sure the wordplay’s in there somewhere. Explanations, please. Enjoy St Patrick’s day. Only one … Read more “Times 24,175 Top of the morning to ya..”