21.23 for this one, with a strong feeling that it should have been a lot quicker. The Wedgwood caused the most trouble, probably because I got fixated on gazunders and other products of the Staffordshire pottery, and couldn’t pick … Read more “Times crossword 25823: enough to drive you potty.”
Month: June 2014
Quick Cryptic No 78, by Hurley – not that quick I’m afraid.
This took me eleven minutes with a fuzzy head from last evening’s festivities. It seems to me that the Quickies are approaching the easier main puzzles in degree of difficulty, with fewer really obvious clues … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 78, by Hurley – not that quick I’m afraid.”
Times Crossword 25,822 – What the Dickens?
Solving Time: 24 minutes; about average for a blogging day. When I typed the result into the club website to check it was all correct, I was surprised to find myself in first place, the … Read more “Times Crossword 25,822 – What the Dickens?”
Quick Cryptic No 77 by Orpheus
Solving time: Easier end of scale Greetings everyone. Standing in today after a late-night email from the boss! A nice straight forward quickie from Orpheus that should provide a pleasant solve for most new solvers. … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 77 by Orpheus”
Times 25,821 – Boring
The first puzzle I had printed was a Saturday Jumbo in the then London Evening News. I think it was harder than this offering. Even on blogging day I raced through in well under 15 … Read more “Times 25,821 – Boring”
Times 25820 – Can we make that three concertos?
Solving time: 75 minutes Music: Mozart, Violin Concertos, Grumiaux/Davis/LSO/ I found this rather hard, but I suspect most of the usual gang will not find it that difficult. I wasn’t sharp at solving it, and … Read more “Times 25820 – Can we make that three concertos?”
Quick Cryptic 76 by Izetti
The puzzle can be found here: http://feeds.thetimes.co.uk/timescrossword/20140623/183/ This is Izetti’s sixth Quick offering, I think, and has all the smoothness experienced solvers will know from his many guises in other newspapers. 21A may cause some … Read more “Quick Cryptic 76 by Izetti”
Saturday Vintage “29582”
No reason to wait a week to blog this one, as it’s not a prize puzzle (even though the solution hasn’t appeared yet). I wish they’d tell us what the original number was – they … Read more “Saturday Vintage “29582””
Sunday Times 4592 (15 Jun 2014) by Tim Moorey
Solving Time: 1:11:27 Apologies for the delay on this one. I did the crossword last weekend, but haven’t written the blog yet. I’ll rattle one off now – won’t be long. Not much to say … Read more “Sunday Times 4592 (15 Jun 2014) by Tim Moorey”
Times Jumbo 1095 (7 Jun 2014)
Solving time: About two and a quarter hours all told – I’m clearly out of practice at these big ones This should have been published yesterday, but I forgot about it. Clearly, my reliability hasn’t … Read more “Times Jumbo 1095 (7 Jun 2014)”