Quick Cryptic 13 by Corelli One at the easier end of the Quickie spectrum today, I thought, or maybe I’m just starting to get my eye in. That said, a few were quite challenging to … Read more “Quick Cryptic 13 by Corelli”
Month: March 2014
Times 25744: Lettres françaises
Solving time: 32:28 Made rather heavy weather of this. Normally I like a grid with a few long answers to get going. But the butterfly would not yield easily without some checking letters. I have … Read more “Times 25744: Lettres françaises”
Times 25,743
I felt too tired last night to face the prospect of solving and blogging post-midnight; with hindsight, that was a good decision, as I found this pretty stretching even after a good night’s sleep. On … Read more “Times 25,743”
Quick Cryptic 12 by Rongo
Posting early because I won’t have time in the morning. I found this puzzle tricky to finish. Most of it went in within 20 minutes but I spent another 45 on the remainder. Can’t really … Read more “Quick Cryptic 12 by Rongo”
Times 25742 – Doggy Special
Just snuck under the half hour mark on this pleasant Monday offering. I am still suffering from a lurgy, so this one is done from home on the iPad without my “template”. I hope it … Read more “Times 25742 – Doggy Special”
QUICK CRYPTIC No. 11 by Dazzler
This took me 12 minutes including understanding the wordplay but the last two of those were spent on 2dn where I suffered a mental block. As with most of the Quick puzzles so far, the … Read more “QUICK CRYPTIC No. 11 by Dazzler”
Quick Cryptic Week 3
The Quick Cryptic blogs seem to have brought a new life to this community – not that we were struggling but we’ve seen a new influx of bloggers and commenters as a result, which has … Read more “Quick Cryptic Week 3”
Jumbo 1081 – March 8th
Standard solve, perhaps at the quick end, with no stand out tough clues. Any hard vocab, such as QUINSY, MASSE and TUMBRIL, was gettable from definition or checkers. Special mention to the wordplay in 4D. … Read more “Jumbo 1081 – March 8th”
Mephisto 2794 by Tim Moorey – A Load of Balls
A relatively easy puzzle with two irritations. After the obscure sportsmen of a couple of weeks ago we now have a schoolboyish contraction of the name of a further obscure sportsman. Quite why our setters … Read more “Mephisto 2794 by Tim Moorey – A Load of Balls”
Sunday Times 4581 (16 Mar 2014) by Dean Mayer
Solving Time: 54:51 A typical Dean puzzle. Quite tough, with plenty of inventive wordplay and excellent surface readings. Too many good ones to pick a COD. cd = cryptic def., dd = double def., rev … Read more “Sunday Times 4581 (16 Mar 2014) by Dean Mayer”