As ever, a delightful little number from Hawthorn characterised by elegant and witty clueing, with no obscurities but plenty to give the grey matter a bit of a work out. The whole thing was an … Read more “Quick Cryptic 682 by Hawthorn”
Month: October 2016
Quick Cryptic 681 by Tracy
This all flowed quite smoothly and enjoyably with some lovely wordplay/surfaces until I reached the bottom section where 15dn, 21 and 22ac caused me some ‘quality thinking time’. Having eventually overcome these challenges, I found … Read more “Quick Cryptic 681 by Tracy”
Times Cryptic 26546
After yesterday’s blog by proxy, here’s one of my own. This one presented a few problems in the solving and even more in the blogging where I found some of the parsing quite tricky to … Read more “Times Cryptic 26546”
Times 26545 – Swansong (now cancelled!!)
I’m posting this on behalf of Hugh (ulaca) who is unable to do so himself for reasons he explains below. I only received this an hour or so ago and I haven’t had a chance … Read more “Times 26545 – Swansong (now cancelled!!)”
Quick Cryptic 680 by Flamande
Yes, me again, making a rare appearance blogging a puzzle whose number doesn’t end in 5. I’ll be away a couple of times in the next month so jackkt has kindly agreed to swap our … Read more “Quick Cryptic 680 by Flamande”
Mephisto 2928 by Don Manley – strewth – wot no rats!
Pleasant if straightforward puzzle Across 3 PERU,BALSAM – (as a plumber)*; thick black liquid (not from the Liffey); 11 TENUE – TENU(r)E; manner of dress; 12 CAPUERA – CAPU(t)-ERA; head=caput; martial art and dance; 13 … Read more “Mephisto 2928 by Don Manley – strewth – wot no rats!”
Sunday Times 4715 by Jeff Pearce
After the last couple of weeks’ offerings from the DMs that were enough to drive a man to drink even more than usual, it was a pleasant relief to get something that was significantly more … Read more “Sunday Times 4715 by Jeff Pearce”
Times Jumbo 1229
There was one answer (57ac) that I hadn’t come across before – otherwise I thought this was fairly straightforward. Hope to see some of you at, or after, the Times Championship in London next Saturday! … Read more “Times Jumbo 1229”
Saturday Times 26538 (8th Oct)
12:31, so a bit easier than the last few weeks (it was for me anyway). Plenty of really good clues in this one, but my COD is 14ac, closely followed by 22ac I think. TOD … Read more “Saturday Times 26538 (8th Oct)”
Times 26,543: A Variety of Registers
After four really quite chewy puzzles in a row, I was living in superstitious dread of what Friday might bring, but I needn’t have worried: this was by some distance the most straightforward of the … Read more “Times 26,543: A Variety of Registers”