Standard Monday fare, with a somewhat loose definition cum somewhat tricky anagram indication at 6d holding me up at the end and causing a brief panic, as I considered I might be in unknown word … Read more “Times 26257 – Period Piece”
Month: November 2015
Times Quick Cryptic 440 by Rongo
At 8 minutes I found this one quite straightforward with no unknown words or meanings. The wordplay didn’t seem very complicated either, but we shall see what others think… Definitions are underlined. Deletions are in … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 440 by Rongo”
Mephisto 2880 by Don Manley
Nothing to frighten regular solvers here and I would have thought a fair test for the less experienced Across 1 MAIDEN,BATTLE – (timetabled + a)* surrounds N=knight (chess); 9 ALMERIES – ALM(ERIE)S; 11 DWAMS – … Read more “Mephisto 2880 by Don Manley”
Sunday Times 4667 by Jeff Pearce – Cakes and Ale
Plenty to enjoy here. Not too hard but no pushover either – just about right for me. Nothing obscure (other than an unknown model – but that probably says more about my personal lack of … Read more “Sunday Times 4667 by Jeff Pearce – Cakes and Ale”
Saturday Times 26250 (7th Nov)
Solved in about 13 minutes online if I remember correctly, but I had one RASH mistake at 12ac (and I don’t think I was the only one). Strange puzzle, with some really good clues – … Read more “Saturday Times 26250 (7th Nov)”
Jumbo 1175
I thought this was quite a tricky puzzle because of the surfeit of (to me) unusual vocabulary – there were several answers where I took minutes to figure out and trust the wordplay, but which … Read more “Jumbo 1175”
Times 26,255: The Revenge of Michael Fish
Another Friday puzzle that seemed less hard than the Thursday puzzle preceding it, though all things are relative and there were certainly a few clues that I could imagine people having a hard time with … Read more “Times 26,255: The Revenge of Michael Fish”
Quick Cryptic 439 by Mara
This one felt a little trickier to get going on than recent Friday quickies, but at least I wasn’t left crunching through the alphabet this week. A version of an old chestnut at 20a, and … Read more “Quick Cryptic 439 by Mara”
Quick Cryptic 438 by Hurley
It’s nearly 1PM and there’s no sign of the Quickie. If there’s no news of it by 1:30 I shall post an emergency blog. I have disabled comments so if it appears in the meantime … Read more “Quick Cryptic 438 by Hurley”
26254 (thanks sawbill) Walter Mitty meets Jo McCarthy in “What’s My Lie?”
Not a particularly difficult one – 15 minutes and 1 second for me, including the usual search for typos and justification of wordplay just to be sure. Plenty of wit to go around, which, together … Read more “26254 (thanks sawbill) Walter Mitty meets Jo McCarthy in “What’s My Lie?””