A reminder that we don’t post actual solving times for these qualifiers, though arcane allusions are welcome. I’ll just say that my cat sat down and started washing herself as I picked up my pen … Read more “Times Championship Qualifier 3”
Month: June 2010
Times 24566: the adventures of 1ac and Obelix?
Solving time : 30 whopping minutes. Kismet came and gave me a chomp on the buttocks, since I had planned a meeting an hour after the crossword came out, thinking “Hey, I’m an old hand … Read more “Times 24566: the adventures of 1ac and Obelix?”
Times 24565
Solving Time: 10:50 A reasonably tricky puzzle this, with at least two ‘decoy’ wordplays. Shortish on time this morning, so not many links to related topics. Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed a new link on … Read more “Times 24565”
Times 24,564 Nowt Gnarly
Solving time 25 minutes A largely straightforward puzzle with a mixture of good, mostly average and a couple of rather weak offerings. All offers on the parsing of 10A gratefully received, no doubt I’ll see … Read more “Times 24,564 Nowt Gnarly”
Times 24563 – Awl’s well that ends well
Solving time: 45 minutes Music: Delius, North Country Sketches, Groves/RPO My time for this puzzle was embarrassing. I raced through most of it in about fifteen minutes, and then got stuck on the last six, … Read more “Times 24563 – Awl’s well that ends well”
Jun. 14th, 2010
ST 4384 (Sun 6 Jun) – Worm hole Solving time: Not taken but I think it was about 5 mins for all but 3dn; one mistake (6dn). [Sorry this is late – my fault entirely, … Read more “Jun. 14th, 2010”
Mephisto 2597 – Tim Moorey
This took me about two and a half hours – I made a meal of the top half, wanting Derby in 1A to be a race or hat, and not seeing P,((c)ORRECT) for ages, even … Read more “Mephisto 2597 – Tim Moorey”
Saturday Times 24556 (June 5th)
Solving time 17:12, but would have been 5 minutes faster if I hadn’t got stuck on 1A/1D for ages (with no good reason really – they seemed rather obvious once I’d got them but for … Read more “Saturday Times 24556 (June 5th)”
TLS 833 (21st May)
Hmph! It’s hard enough without cock-ups in the enumeration, but this was one of the worst since I’ve been solving it. 10A was (4,5) not (9), 3D was (9) not (4,5) and 12A was (2,1,4) … Read more “TLS 833 (21st May)”
Jumbo 873
Quite a few unfamiliar words and phrases in this one, but all with wordplay that leads reasonably clearly to the correct solution. I did not time myself on this as I did it in more than … Read more “Jumbo 873”