Ouch. Clocked in at 22:59, and really had to work hard at wrestling this one into submission, especially in the bottom half, with 19ac last in, on wordplay only. A wavelength thing, or a puzzle … Read more “Times 25,444”
Month: April 2013
Times 25443 – A perambulation through an urban amenity
Solving time: 27 minutes Music: Sibelius, Symphony #2, Schippers/NYP I found this puzzle a bit on the dull side. The clues, while technically correct, lacked the outrageous wordplay and devious literals that can make solving … Read more “Times 25443 – A perambulation through an urban amenity”
Mephisto 2744 by Paul McKenna – Pink Panther Edition
A very enjoyable Mephisto that required some hard work and concentration Across 1 DICASTERY – DIC(ASTER)Y; unpredictable=DIC(e)Y then replace the last of (thre)E by old word for star=ASTER;an old court; 12 ENROLL – hidden (dark)EN … Read more “Mephisto 2744 by Paul McKenna – Pink Panther Edition”
Sunday Times 4531 (31 Mar 2013) by Tim Moorey – Ecclesiastical incumbents
Solving time: About 30 minutes offline. For the most part, I found this one pretty easy. Probably three-quarters went in in about 15 minutes, but then I came unstuck over half a dozen or so … Read more “Sunday Times 4531 (31 Mar 2013) by Tim Moorey – Ecclesiastical incumbents”
Saturday Times 25436 (30th March)
Sorry for the delay in getting this posted, just didn’t have time yesterday. Anyway, great puzzle and quite tricky, around 25 minutes to solve. It looked like it was going to be a pangram as … Read more “Saturday Times 25436 (30th March)”
Jumbo 1027
27:14 on the Club timer, which would normally indicate a not-too-difficult puzzle; however, this one had its fair share of slightly obscure vocabulary – not Mephisto-level obscure, but above average for a Jumbo, certainly. However, … Read more “Jumbo 1027”
Times 25441
I struggled a bit with this missing some gifts along the way but got there in the end in a couple of minutes over the hour. I didn’t know the family tree and the French … Read more “Times 25441”
Times 25440 – Mamma Mia!
Phew! What a challenging puzzle which took me an hour to unravel and even then, not entirely satisfied with some parsing. Cryptic clues are supposed to be fashioned in a way that enables solvers to … Read more “Times 25440 – Mamma Mia!”
Times Crossword 25,439 – barking mad
Solving Time: 22 minutes. It would have been five minutes or so less, but see 1ac below.. Still, only about average difficulty overall, I would guess. I found nothing significant to disagree with or complain … Read more “Times Crossword 25,439 – barking mad”
Times 25,438 Oodles of Argot
Solving time 20 minutes An entertaining puzzle that contains a lot of slang and a slightly macabre twist. There are no obscurities and even the painter is well known. I liked the “misses rowing” definition. … Read more “Times 25,438 Oodles of Argot”