This may be a tale of two types of solvers – those who get 1ac early and those who don’t. I was in the latter category, took 25 minutes and think this is pretty hard … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 112 by Izetti”
Month: August 2014
Times 25862 – Nothing much in the corridor of uncertainty
A slight delay in posting this which I blame on the goings-on at Valhalla. Some nice touches in this puzzle, but overall a typical Monday offering to ease us into the week. In this respect, … Read more “Times 25862 – Nothing much in the corridor of uncertainty”
Times Quick Cryptic 111 by Grumpy
As always it’s difficult to predict how a puzzle will be received by others, particularly the newbies, but I’d tentatively suggest that this one might be about as easy as things can get. The vocab … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 111 by Grumpy”
Times Jumbo 1102
And we’re back to my normal sort of solving time, 33 minutes for this one. Steady and mostly enjoyable challenge; I concluded that this solver a) likes their cryptic definitions, and b) would have been … Read more “Times Jumbo 1102”
Mephisto 2814 by Don Manley
Average to easy puzzle which posed no major problems. Across 1 MUGWUMP – MUG-W-UMP; weak=w (particle physics); umpire=UMP; The jocular word MUGWUMP is from Algonquian (Natick) “mugquomp”,meaning “important person”;The Mugwumps were Republicans who defected to … Read more “Mephisto 2814 by Don Manley”
Sunday Times 4601 by Jeff Pearce
20:11. From the leaderboard it seems I was a bit off the pace with this one, which isn’t really surprising: I’ve been on holiday in Canada for the last couple of weeks so my brain … Read more “Sunday Times 4601 by Jeff Pearce”
Saturday Times 25855 (2nd August)
Solving time 11:31, but wasted a lot of time on 14D of all things, so should probably have been under 10 minutes. Good puzzle though, and probably the last one I didn’t struggle with. I’ve … Read more “Saturday Times 25855 (2nd August)”
Quick Cryptic No 110 by Orpheus
Seven or eight minutes of writing-in to complete this, a tad harder perhaps than my Wednesday blogging duty, with one word rather obscure but gettable from the wordplay. For new solvers, there are several ‘old … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 110 by Orpheus”
Times 25860
This one took me 47 minutes parsing all as I solved. I found it pretty straightforward so I’ll take this opportunity to write a simple blog and bunk off early for once. Across 1 GRASS … Read more “Times 25860”
Times Quick Cryptic No 109 by Teazel
Greetings all. Thanks to jackkt for covering for me last week while I was away. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle which I tackled while waiting for my hospital appointment. I didn’t find it particularly strenuous. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 109 by Teazel”