A chewier puzzle this week that required close attention at times Across 1 SANGS – SANG-S(hanghai); SANG=celebrated; mouth organ in Macau; 5 COEVALS – CO-(SLAVE reversed); Colombia=CO; contemporaries; 10 ACARPOUS – A-CA(RPO)US(e); RPO=Royal Philarmonic; legal … Read more “Mephisto 2942 by Tim Moorey”
Month: January 2017
Sunday Times 4729 by David McLean
By Harry’s exacting standards, this one was at the easier end of the spectrum I thought. Not much to frighten the horses – all in all a pleasant stroll. From a parsing point of view … Read more “Sunday Times 4729 by David McLean”
Jumbo 1245
Perhaps a little on the easier side than average and with plenty of pleasing surfaces. The few unknowns could be manoeuvred around without too much trouble. Definitions are underlined, {} = omission, * = anagram, … Read more “Jumbo 1245”
Saturday Times 26622 (14th Jan)
Solved in 14:00 exactly on the clock, so pretty standard fare for a Saturday. I have a quibble about 5ac, but really enjoyed 26ac and 20dn – extra marks for originality. Across 1 Vehicle getting … Read more “Saturday Times 26622 (14th Jan)”
Times 26,627: Inauguration Day
It’s possible that not every word in a Times puzzle is carefully chosen in advance to be enormously topical on the date of publication, but I couldn’t help but see this one as a sly … Read more “Times 26,627: Inauguration Day”
Quick Cryptic 749 by Teazel
Morning all. This offering from Teazel took me nine and a half minutes to complete. That means either it was quite tough or I was being a bit thick, so I’ll be interested to hear … Read more “Quick Cryptic 749 by Teazel”
Times Quick Cryptic No 748 by Joker
A bit north of tipsy when doing this, I gave up after 16 minutes. In retrospect, I would have been a while getting 12d, but I really should have got 13ac without… well, it’s not … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 748 by Joker”
Times Cryptic 26626 – January 19, 2017 Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs
There were early signs that our setter was about to demonstrate his grasp of the entire alphabet, though I don’t think the assumption made any difference to my speed of solving, which produced a par … Read more “Times Cryptic 26626 – January 19, 2017 Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs”
Times 26625 – middle of the road, on the road
I don’t have a solving time for this one, as I did it in three bursts in transit from very cold and windy France to nearly as cold and windier Spain, where in theory Winter … Read more “Times 26625 – middle of the road, on the road”
Quick Cryptic 747 by Mara
I would certainly have found this much harder were it not for the plentitude of double definitions, multi-word answers and anagrams (look out for the unusual indicator at 8dn) that helped me get a start … Read more “Quick Cryptic 747 by Mara”