A customarily splendid offering from Praxiteles, filled with some really quite ingenious &lit-type clues. The main theme is Sellar & Yeatman’s 1066 And All That, and if you have fond memories of that historical romp … Read more “TLS Crossword 1181 by Praxiteles – June 23, 2017 – 1181 and All That”
Month: July 2017
Times Quick Cryptic No 873 by Joker
Twelve minutes to complete, and then a couple of minutes scratching my head over the parsing of 14A. I’m not entirely satisfied even now, so maybe a chance for someone to ILLUMINE the setter’s thinking. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 873 by Joker”
Times 26776 – is that Mr. Wu cleaning windows?
Solving time : 9:59 on the club timer, as close as you can get to under 10 minutes! I’m the third time on there and the fastest, so maybe I’m more on the wavelength with … Read more “Times 26776 – is that Mr. Wu cleaning windows?”
Times 26775 – who can do this one? 28 across.
A general knowledge flavour to this one, I thought, with more unusual or obscure words than in recent Wednesday challenges, but all gettable with the wordplay. We uncover a cactus, an antelope, a Japanese art … Read more “Times 26775 – who can do this one? 28 across.”
Quick Cryptic 872 by Flamande
One at the easier end of the spectrum today, I thought, although solvers who don’t have a nodding acquaintance with Middle Eastern currencies may have had to trust to definition and cross checkers at 8ac. … Read more “Quick Cryptic 872 by Flamande”
Times Cryptic 26774
55 minutes for this one. I seem destined to report a slow solving time on blogging days. I don’t suffer from ‘blogger’s nerves’ any more but in the course of duty one likes to consider every … Read more “Times Cryptic 26774”
Times Quick Cryptic 871 by Corelli
Another Corelli, another 15 minutes of entertainment – finished, finally, at 20ac with a far from obvious hidden clue.I had a double take on the parsing at 6dn and a triple take on whatever was … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 871 by Corelli”
Times 26773 – Double Cross
I was going along swimmingly (not Mark Spitz, exactly – more like a middle-aged bloke with a dodgy crawl stroke) on this one until I hit a wall at the 9d/18a crossing. Now, if I … Read more “Times 26773 – Double Cross”
Times Quick Cryptic 870 by Teazel
I neeeded 11 minutes to complete the grid parsing as I went, so missed my target by 1 minute. There are a few words here that may only be easy if the solver has met … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 870 by Teazel”
Jumbo 1272 June 24, 2017
I seem to have fallen into a pattern with the Jumbos, where the easier ones take just over half an hour, and the harder ones take about an hour. This one took 32:54, so you … Read more “Jumbo 1272 June 24, 2017”