Solving time: 35 Minutes Music: Mozart, Violin Concerti #1 & #4, Grumiaux/Davis/LSO I would have been quicker, perhaps, but was held back at the end by ignorance. I was not familiar with ‘Oersted’, ‘siskin’, ‘nearside’, … Read more “Times 25138 – Ignorance is no excuse!”
Month: April 2012
Mephisto 2693 – Paul McKenna
I got an email that something was amiss with 16 down, which turned out to be my last one in and even with the hint that there’s something wrong I can’t quite see what it … Read more “Mephisto 2693 – Paul McKenna”
Sunday Times 4480 (8 Apr 2012) – Name dropping
Solving time: 35:14 – with one wrong (see 27a). No one should be left in any doubt about The Sunday Times’ use of living people in its crosswords. No less than seven people are mentioned … Read more “Sunday Times 4480 (8 Apr 2012) – Name dropping”
Times Jumbo 972
A solving time of 34 minutes, occasionally feeling a bit dozy, particularly when I was left with a lot of white space in the centre; but the Crossword Club scoreboard tells me that Magoo took … Read more “Times Jumbo 972”
Saturday Times 25131 (7th April)
Approx 15 minutes for this one, solved sitting in a pub in Solihull while out shopping. Took me a while to get going, but finished in a bit of a rush as I finally locked … Read more “Saturday Times 25131 (7th April)”
Times 25136 – Another sting in the tail…
Dave is unavailable to blog this Friday so I am standing in. I finished most of this comfortably within 30 minutes but then got stuck in the SE corner with 11ac still missing and these … Read more “Times 25136 – Another sting in the tail…”
Times 25135: Oh Canada?
Solving time : 22:27 with the top two entries being the last ones in. I got stuck several times on this one, and often it was just my denseness, but I think I wasn’t the … Read more “Times 25135: Oh Canada?”
Times 25134: Thou spreadst a table
Solving time: 18:53 A bit phased early this morning by the header of the puzzle on the Club site: “The 2012 Times National Crossword Championship Qualifying Puzzle No 2 with full details of how to … Read more “Times 25134: Thou spreadst a table”
Times 25,133
11:22 on the club timer. Mostly straightforward stuff, with a tendency towards some more teasing cryptic def. / charade type clueing, which I liked. Across 1 RICK – (PAT)RICK. Patrick is one of the standard … Read more “Times 25,133”
Times 25132 – Arose, red, seedy…
Solving Time: 57 minutes I knew I shouldn’t have stayed up to watch Paris-Roubaix last night. I began slowly and things went downhill from there, if you’ll pardon the reference to 27d. I never found … Read more “Times 25132 – Arose, red, seedy…”