Did this is 20 minutes in my currently daily taxi to / from Bordeaux, on a nice smooth French autoroute, no potholes here (although it is péage). The second half of 18a was the only … Read more “Times 27087 – Horryd please vote for 2d as word of the Day”
Month: July 2018
Times Quick Cryptic No 1132 by Teazel
A fine puzzle, but a ghastly solve — the perfect storm of difficulty and distraction: scrawling in answers to a very (~30%) UK-centric puzzle and simultaneously trying to prevent my two-year-old from burning the house … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1132 by Teazel”
Times Cryptic 27086
I needed 38 minutes to complete this one as it presented no major problems. There were a couple of words / meanings I didn’t know, but the wordplay was straightforward in these instances apart from the (almost) inevitable … Read more “Times Cryptic 27086”
Times Quick Cryptic 1131 by Joker
This initially seemed hard but I got underway quite quickly with 1dn (despite not being familiar with the university), got used to what seemed to me to be an unusual amount of verbiage in the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1131 by Joker”
Times 27085 – Coming Home?
25 minutes for this pleasant offering that had some nice misdirection if not too much to frighten the horses. Away we go… ACROSS 1 Approve pub bar’s term for concoction (6-5)RUBBER-STAMP – anagram* of PUB … Read more “Times 27085 – Coming Home?”
Times Quick Cryptic 1130 by Flamande
This puzzle took me 8 minutes so I’d say it’s at the easier end of the spectrum, but it still has a few trickier clues that may stretch the brain a little more. As usual … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1130 by Flamande”
Mephisto 3018 – Paul McKenna
No problems with this straightforward puzzle. The setter’s customary play on words across the top of the puzzle refers to Wykehamist – an old boy of private school Winchester College such as Oswald Mosley In … Read more “Mephisto 3018 – Paul McKenna”
Sunday Times 4805, by Jeff Pearce — He lives!
I enoyed this a lot more than the last Pearce entry it was my duty to blog. No complaints this time about any of the double definitions (or anything else). Nothing too far out, but … Read more “Sunday Times 4805, by Jeff Pearce — He lives!”
Times Cryptic No 27078 – Saturday, 30 June 2018. Don’t raise my hopes.
I started quickly on this one and after about 30 minutes had done all bar two. 3dn was just a blind spot for me, but 4dn is definitely my clue of the day. A very … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27078 – Saturday, 30 June 2018. Don’t raise my hopes.”
Jumbo 1330
I found this one of about average difficulty, though the leaderboard seems to suggest a consensus of a bit harder than that. Some interesting constructions, e.g. in 8A, 14A, and 11D, a number of four-part … Read more “Jumbo 1330”