If you want to attend the championships as a spectator, here’s what you need to know. There is limited space for spectators at the preliminary sessions, and more space (as there are 24 contestants … Read more “Spectators at Times Crossword Championships, Sat 20 October”
Month: October 2012
Times 25291 – placeholder no longer
Greetings blogophiles. An opportunity came up tonight I couldn’t refuse and so the regular crossword writeup is going to be a few hours late (I anticipate around noon UK time). So have at it in … Read more “Times 25291 – placeholder no longer”
Times 25290: A cold coming
Solving time: 27:52 A few obscurities including a poet, a composer and a sculptor. Had most trouble with 23ac though, where the parsing took a fair while and I didn’t want to enter the answer … Read more “Times 25290: A cold coming”
Times 25,289
9:59 on the Club timer, for a nice, middlingly difficult puzzle, which I solved pretty steadily after a slowish start. I don’t think there was anything too obscure, but as ever, we shall soon see … Read more “Times 25,289”
Times 25288
A rather more challenging Monday puzzle, highlights of which were an excellent cryptic clue (9) and a weird Gaelic word which did for me (21). 35 minutes for all bar these two, a few more to get … Read more “Times 25288”
Mephisto 2718 by Don Manley – Ride’m Cowboy
I was off to a flying start, seeing 1A straight away though not with quite the correct wordplay! I’ve always rather liked the Remington bronze. With both 11A, 13A and 14A offering little resistance, that … Read more “Mephisto 2718 by Don Manley – Ride’m Cowboy”
Sunday Times 4505 (30 Sep 2012) by Jeff Pearce
Solving time: 20:27 – Although I would have been under 20 minutes if I hadn’t spent 30 seconds checking at the end. As my time suggests, I thought this was very straightforward by recent standards. … Read more “Sunday Times 4505 (30 Sep 2012) by Jeff Pearce”
Jumbo 999
Slightly more challenging this time, I reckoned – took me a little over half an hour, though admittedly late at night. It featured two answers that I don’t believe I’ve come across before: NOCTURN (not … Read more “Jumbo 999”
Saturday Times 25281 (29th Sept)
19:37 for this one. I got off to a horribly slow start, as I just couldn’t get my mind to think cryptically at first, and every clue I looked at seemed like so much gobbledygook. … Read more “Saturday Times 25281 (29th Sept)”
Times 25286 – Bloomin’ scorpion again…
The Colonel’s feeling neutral about this one. Once again I seemed set fair to finish in well under my 30 minute target but I was delayed by the proverbial sting in the tail as four … Read more “Times 25286 – Bloomin’ scorpion again…”