Solving time: let’s just call it not my day. I had a little outpatient surgery today, so I’m feeling terrible, and then my printer decided to run out of ink while this one was printing … Read more “Times 24698 – ow”
Month: November 2010
24697 – Championship Preliminary Round 2, Puzzle 3
Solving time: about 10 minutes Like the other puzzles in prelim 2, I solved this one late on the Sunday night. I failed to record my time in the usual way, so this is a … Read more “24697 – Championship Preliminary Round 2, Puzzle 3”
Times 24,696 Loki Lessons Needed
Solving time 25 minutes An interesting puzzle with a mix of an old Italian poet (in the Times, surely not), a French Revolutionary and a nautical manoeuvre using an anchor (sounds like fun). I found … Read more “Times 24,696 Loki Lessons Needed”
Times 24695 – “O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag……
Solving time: 32 minutes Music: Altan, Local Ground Another game of two halves. Having put in about three quarters of the answers in less than ten minutes, I was a bit chagrined at not being … Read more “Times 24695 – “O O O O that Shakespeherian Rag……”
Mephisto 2619 – Paul McKenna
Oh boy did I make a mess out of this one, first off writing a wrong answer in at the pretty obvious 19down and then letting it keep me from getting the equally obvious 30. … Read more “Mephisto 2619 – Paul McKenna”
ST 4406 (Sun 7 Nov) – An ill wind
Solving time: 4:41 The clues in this puzzle are mostly accurate but some of the definitions are askew, and I’m still wincing over 8dn (WINDSURFER) which is a candidate for the worst clue I’ve seen … Read more “ST 4406 (Sun 7 Nov) – An ill wind”
Saturday Times 24688 (6th Nov)
Solving time: 16:57 to get all but the top left corner. Maybe half an hour more to finish it! The last holdouts were 1D, 3D, 9A and 12A. I just went blank, and probably looked … Read more “Saturday Times 24688 (6th Nov)”
TLS Autumn Acrostic (22 October)
Solving time: 50:48 I expect there’s a knack to these acrostics, but clearly I haven’t yet got it! Perhaps I’ll do better next time, particularly if I’m more careful about transcribing letters from one grid … Read more “TLS Autumn Acrostic (22 October)”
Self-promotion
Step over to the Church Times for my second puzzle to be published there, as edited by Don Manley. This time half the clues survived unchanged (about a third on the first one, I think). … Read more “Self-promotion”
24693
Solving time: Unrecorded – I still had five left after the hour I allow myself on blogging days, so resorted to aids for them. For most of them I had interpreted the wordplay all wrong, … Read more “24693”