Stopped the clock at 19.36, and only time will tell whether that’s a decent time for a slightly tricky puzzle or a stumbling dawdle through a piece of standard fare. There were some decent chuckles … Read more “26026 In which I restored Mlle Nina to her rightful place”
Month: February 2015
Quick Cryptic No 247 by Hurley
A steady write-in for me in 10 minutes, with an extra minute or two to parse 15d; nothing very controversial I hope. Across 1 COMBAT – Hidden in Sit(COM BAT)hetic; def. fight. You don’t even … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 247 by Hurley”
Times Crossword 26025 – Sounds like…
Solving Time: 16 minutes, but it seems I have one wrong. I’m pretty sure it’s 19ac, careless of me really. Otherwise, a good crossword with some neat clues (I did like 13ac) and no unduly … Read more “Times Crossword 26025 – Sounds like…”
Sunday Times 4628 – Jeff Pearce (February 8, 2015)
Back again! I’m standing in for Dave P on this one as he’s incommunicado at the moment but I hope he’s okay. I found this very tough but I have no time to offer as … Read more “Sunday Times 4628 – Jeff Pearce (February 8, 2015)”
Times 26024
65 minutes. An excellent puzzle, somewhat on the tough side I thought, and once again on my blogging day I started apprehensively because the first thing I noted was the complete absence of the 3- … Read more “Times 26024”
Quick Cryptic No 246 by Izetti
Watch out for a smattering of question marks, some not-so-QC vocabulary and a tree which wouldn’t normally spring to mind. I rather enjoyed this but it didn’t seem like a newbie-friendly puzzle. It felt like … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 246 by Izetti”
Times 26023 – ….and startled the ultra-fastidious!
Solving time: 31 minutes Music: Sibelius, Second Symphony, Barbarolli, RPO This seemed like another routine Monday effort. Some of the wordplay was quite convoluted, but since the literal was sitting in plain sight, that was … Read more “Times 26023 – ….and startled the ultra-fastidious!”
Quick Cryptic 245 by Mara
Today in 1921 John Galbraith Graham was born. He’s better known in Crosswordland as the Guardian compiler Araucaria. Though he is sadly no longer with us, he was a prominent exponent of the “libertarian” style … Read more “Quick Cryptic 245 by Mara”
Times Jumbo 1132
Solving time of 18:59 is probably as fast as I have solved a Jumbo, at least since I started blogging them, so either this was at the easy end of the spectrum, or I was … Read more “Times Jumbo 1132”
Mephisto 2841 – Don Manley
I made heavy weather of the left hand side of this mostly because of two references that I had to look up – one I think at the end I had heard of (Marie Stopes), … Read more “Mephisto 2841 – Don Manley”