Well, that was fun! Having carefully planned the day around ensuring adequate time to complete the blog before breakfast time for the UK contingent (i.e. by late afternoon here in Sydney), I was thwarted as … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 3 – Grumpy Setter, Grumpy Blogger!”
Month: March 2014
Times 25732: A 17ac stravaig in warmish morning weather … and 15ac to all our readers
Solving time: 29:11 Took my time this morning. Just strolling through this, bit by bit, and writing down the parsings along the way. Needed a coffee to finish off in the top right. Suspect the … Read more “Times 25732: A 17ac stravaig in warmish morning weather … and 15ac to all our readers”
Times Quick Cryptic (Number 2) – Vicars and Tarts
Completed via the web edition of the paper because that is all my subscription permits. Pleased to see correct letter counts for multiple word solutions but disappointed not to see a print button. I notice … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic (Number 2) – Vicars and Tarts”
Times 25,731
Stopped the clock at 11:15 on what I thought was a very pleasant but not too demanding puzzle (with the caveat that it’s obviously impossible to tell in advance if everyone else will think the … Read more “Times 25,731”
Times 25730 – Carry On, Sister!
41 minutes, finishing, unusually, with two multi-word answers, both of which were very good. A very nice offering from Jeff Pearce yesterday for those who may have missed it. Oops, I got one (down) wrong. … Read more “Times 25730 – Carry On, Sister!”
QUICK CRYPTIC 1 by Des – Not so quick
Firstly I’d like to say that I welcome this addition to the Times range of puzzles and I find it encouraging that it appears to demonstrate a commitment to the future. Having said that I … Read more “QUICK CRYPTIC 1 by Des – Not so quick”
Quick Cryptic blogging
So far we have the following volunteers to blog the new Quick Cryptic: ianb21, jackkt, mohn2, nick_the_novice, william_j_s, macavity123 and allan_sidcup. From what I’ve heard it’s initially going to be only Mon-Fri, and may or … Read more “Quick Cryptic blogging”
Sunday Times 4579 (2 Mar 2014) by Tim Moorey
Solving time: 51:44 Not a bad test. There were a couple of potential traps for the unwary where similar words would fit the checkers – 16a and 17d, but both were clear from the wordplay. … Read more “Sunday Times 4579 (2 Mar 2014) by Tim Moorey”
Mephisto 2792 by Paul McKenna
A largely straightforward puzzle in which I was glad I didn’t need to know the name of any international tiddlywink players Across 1 FISTULA – (fault is)*; 7 SCANTY – S(CANT)Y; Seychelles=SY; 12 MIRTHLESS – … Read more “Mephisto 2792 by Paul McKenna”
Times Jumbo 1079
A fairly straightforward Jumbo, I thought, with quite a high proportion of double definitions/indications. A few of the answers – possibly ALCALDE, CICERONE, PENEPLAIN – may not be familiar to everyone, but they’re in most … Read more “Times Jumbo 1079”