Month: July 2009

Time taken to solve: 45 minutes. After yesterday’s predictions about being due a stinker today I approached this with a degree of apprehension and on failing to solve 1a which should have been easy, I … Read more “Times 24292 – Not a stinker!”

Solving time : 9 minutes, I expect there’ll be some greased-lightning times, there’s not a lot obscure here and the wordplay is crystal-clear. I did have one advantage that 15 across is a song that … Read more “Times 24291 – throwing a bone to the Antipodeans”

Solving time: 14:58 Quite a tricky puzzle this, with one word which I’m sure many will not have known before today. My last few answers in order were 17, 9, 1D, 1A, 18, and 13. … Read more “Times 24290 – nature class”

Solving time : 20 minutes There’s not much to say about this puzzle. It’s very straightforward with no particularly unusual words, obscurities or clever devices. Across 1 WESTWARD,HO! – two meanings 1=novel by Charles Kingsley … Read more “Times 24,289 A Sabbat for Bigfoot”

Solving time: 16 minutes Music: Schubert, Drei Klavierstucke, Wilhelm Kempff Far from difficult, perhaps due to some clues and answers that have appeared recently in other Times puzzles. The editors should encourage the setters to … Read more “Times 24288”

Solving time: 10 mins I thought a couple of the cryptic definitions in this were as good as anything (27ac, 15dn). A couple of pairs gave me problems at the end, 29ac/23dn (INFERIOR and SERAI) … Read more “ST 4338 (Sun 18 Jul) – Simple interest”

Solving time: 14.50. I thought this was a good mixture of tricky clues and more straightforward ones. Had some problems with the wordplay in a few places but the definition and/or crossing letters were usually … Read more “Times Crossword 24286”