Month: May 2010

It seems to me that there’s been a policy shift with this year’s qualifiers ( for the better in my opinion). The two so far have been much trickier than those offered over the last … Read more “2010 Championship Qualifier 2”

Solving time : 18 minutes, got off to a slow start, and then a flurry of solving starting on the left hand side and working towards the right. Stared at the anagram at 18 for … Read more “Times 24542 – confucius say man who get 14 in his 1 is going to shine his 20s”

Solving time: 19:15 Before we start, a quick note that the previous posting here contains details for the next “Sloggers and Betters” event, next Thursday. I found this as tough puzzle as my time suggests. … Read more “24541”

Solving time 25 minutes Quite a lively puzzle with a wide range of clue structures that include only one anagram. There’s a levening of general knowledge required but no real obscurities with the possible exception … Read more “Times 24,540 Begbie meets Kipling”

Solving time: 30 minutes Music: Sibelius, Violin Concerto Belkin/Ashkenazy/LSO This is the first puzzle I’ve had to blog that I consider somewhat unsatisfactory. For me, the cryptics lacked the precision one expects in a Ximinean … Read more “Times 24539 – In search of the lost cloud”

Solving time: About 5 mins (interrupted, unfortunately, or maybe fortunately given my mistake at 7dn) Struggling for time at the moment I tried to cram this into what I thought was a suitable gap; it … Read more “ST 4380 (Sun 9 May) – S Club 7 x 2”

Solving time: 9.02 Nothing too difficult here, with the wordplay being pretty much conclusive where I wasn’t certain of the definition. There were lots of very accessible multi-word answers and several anagrams too. I lost … Read more “Times Crossword 24537”