Richard Cleaver has once again produced a Cryptic Quiz in aid of MIND – The Mental Health Charity. The subject this time is food and drink, and there are 100 definitionless cryptic clues to solve … Read more “MIND Charity Cryptic Quiz”
Month: January 2015
Quick Cryptic No 217 by Rongo
An 11ac, well balanced puzzle with some amusing anagram indicators I’d not seen used before; “fidget” and “pants”. 9 minutes with the parsing understood, except for 18ac in part, see below. The first across clue … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 217 by Rongo”
Times Crossword 25,989 – Penguin Edition
Solving Time: About 13 minutes. I thought I was heading for a really fast time, but then got a little held up in the NE corner, with 6dn and 8dn last to go in. Some … Read more “Times Crossword 25,989 – Penguin Edition”
Quick Cryptic No 216 by Hurley
I found this considerably more difficult than yesterday’s – with the crossing clues at 5dn and 8ac causing particular problems. Going over the clues again, post solve, they all hang together well – so good … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 216 by Hurley”
Times Cryptic – 25988
This one took me 33 minutes so I just missed my 30 minute target. There was nothing unfamiliar here apart from 21ac but there were a couple where I lost time working out wordplay. Other … Read more “Times Cryptic – 25988”
Times 25987 – 60s Retro
The first Monday of the new year and very much a typical Monday, straightforward as long as you lived through the 1960s, have watched Austin Powers or know your short-service British PMs. And the setter … Read more “Times 25987 – 60s Retro”
Quick Cryptic 215 by Pedro
This is my first crossword blog of 2015 and the Quick Cryptic gods have seen fit to give me Pedro’s fourth offering to get my teeth into. There’s nothing particularly obscure here, though the first … Read more “Quick Cryptic 215 by Pedro”
Sunday Times 4622 (28 Dec 2014) by Jeff Pearce
Solving time: 32:17 This seemed quite a straightforward post-Christmas offering from Jeff. A reasonable number of easy starters, but a few slightly tougher ones as well. One or two words I wasn’t familiar with, like … Read more “Sunday Times 4622 (28 Dec 2014) by Jeff Pearce”
Mephisto 2835 – Don Manley
We close out 2014 in Mephistos with Don Manley, and a puzzle that had me stumped for a while, particularly in the bottom right corner, where I had to look most of the answers up … Read more “Mephisto 2835 – Don Manley”
The Sunday Times Christmas crossword by Tim Moorey.
39:15. I wasn’t expecting a Jumbo when I opened this puzzle, and I might have waited for a better moment if I had known, because I was feeling decidedly under the weather. However having started … Read more “The Sunday Times Christmas crossword by Tim Moorey.”