27:44. Another tricky one from Dean, and highly enjoyable as always. He has a knack for writing clues that I at least find completely baffling until the penny drops. Bog-standard cryptic crossword setting this ain’t. … Read more “Sunday Times 4686 by Dean Mayer – lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate”
Month: March 2016
Quick Cryptic Vacancy
Olivia’s off to her home in the wilderness this week (I’ve seen pictures, looks quite idyllic but there’s no Internet access), so will be unable to blog the Quickie for the next few months. So … Read more “Quick Cryptic Vacancy”
Saturday Times 26364 (19th March)
20:43 for this one, held up by DUFFEL confidently written in at 6ac! In fact there seemed to be a mini-theme based on 1ac going on here, what with SPENSERIAN (the master of mis-spelling) and … Read more “Saturday Times 26364 (19th March)”
Times 26,369: Taking A Bath
Happy Easter! Due to the rare privilege of not having to go to work on a Friday, I tackled this puzzle not with the chimes of midnight, but immediately upon getting up in the morning, … Read more “Times 26,369: Taking A Bath”
Quick Crossword 534 by Mara
Lots of double definitions this week, along with some enjoyable surface readings; favourites at 15a and 7d, and the anagram at 8d. Found 2d difficult to parse as had RUE at first coming from regret … Read more “Quick Crossword 534 by Mara”
Times 26368 – is there a political statement in 27 across?
Solving time : 9:08, which right now, about two and a half hours after the puzzle came out, puts me at third on the leaderboard, so I suspect this is on the easier side of … Read more “Times 26368 – is there a political statement in 27 across?”
Quick Cryptic 533 by Flamande
This is my last QC blog for now because we’re about to embark on our seasonal migration to Rhinebeck NY from NYC at dawn’s crack tomorrow. We gave up seeking internet (and cellphone) access there … Read more “Quick Cryptic 533 by Flamande”
Times 26367 – no need for a 13d
Well, I’ve paid up for my final burst of Gigabytes from that robber, Señor Vodafone, as we’re heading back to the land of Monsieur Orange and his unlimited ADSL on Saturday. 17 gigabytes in ten … Read more “Times 26367 – no need for a 13d”
Quick Cryptic 532 by Hurley
An interesting puzzle from Hurley with several clues where, whilst the answer went in easily enough from definition and cross checkers, the parsing was somewhat trickier (at least as far as I was concerned) – … Read more “Quick Cryptic 532 by Hurley”
Quick Cryptic 531 by Teazel
The western half flew in – the eastern half was a different story. I acknowledge that I misread the clue at 4dn which didn’t help at all but I had the feeling that I was … Read more “Quick Cryptic 531 by Teazel”