Initial results (including mine, breaking the 30 minute mark) suggest that this innocuous little number might be bamboozling everyone except George, at least a bit. My holdups were mostly in the lower half of the … Read more “Times Cryptic 26710 – April 27, 2017 Unaccented, but with a fair bit of stress”
Month: April 2017
Times 26,709: Taking Down Particulars
I’m standing in for pipkirby today so I’ll keep things short and sweet. I did this funny and ingenious puzzle on paper, in 9 minutes and 18 seconds according to stopwatch, so by no means … Read more “Times 26,709: Taking Down Particulars”
Quick Cryptic 817 by Orpheus
Apologies for the sparse blog. I find myself without a computer this week, posting on an iPad and in plain text. Plenty of easy starters in all corners make the longer answers solvable; a great … Read more “Quick Cryptic 817 by Orpheus”
Times 26708 – “I’m a substitute….
Solving time: 32 minutes Music: Art Bears: Hopes and Fears I got through this one fairly quickly until the very end, and then became thoroughly stuck. The three that did me in were the ‘attache’/’coati’/’naked … Read more “Times 26708 – “I’m a substitute….”
Quick Cryptic 816 by Flamande
The crossings of 17ac, 3dn and 18dn caused delay in this otherwise fairly straightforward yet very entertaining puzzle. I’m currently unsure about the parsing of ‘m’ in 17ac – but hope it’ll become clear as … Read more “Quick Cryptic 816 by Flamande”
Times 26707 – Hopes and Fears
Solving time: 26 minutes Music: David Bowie, Low I did this puzzle in good time, but I think perhaps less-skilled solvers may find it a little tough. It is full of references that are slightly … Read more “Times 26707 – Hopes and Fears”
Quick Cryptic 815 by Teazel
A puzzle of mid-range difficulty from Teazel to ease us into the new week, with some nice surfaces and little in the way of strange vocab or devilish constructions. I make this Teazel’s 75th Quicky … Read more “Quick Cryptic 815 by Teazel”
Mephisto 2955 – Paul McKenna
Apologies for the late post – I’m in a new play, Prairie Fire, by Ryan Madden (a local playwright) and it has been taking up a significant chunk of time, especially Saturday afternoons when I … Read more “Mephisto 2955 – Paul McKenna”
Sunday Times 4742 by Jeff Pearce
This took me a little under 10 minutes, so from my perspective at least it wasn’t a difficult puzzle. But that is no bad thing, and I really enjoyed solving this one. It’s mostly impeccably … Read more “Sunday Times 4742 by Jeff Pearce”
Times Saturday 26700 – April 15, 2017. See you in Ibiza?
This crossword had a lot of delicious clues. 16dn was an absolute delight! The more obscure answers were all gettable from the wordplay. And happily, no flora, no fauna. A very satisfying crossword. Thanks to … Read more “Times Saturday 26700 – April 15, 2017. See you in Ibiza?”