I was quite pleased to solve this somewhere north of the 8 minute mark, as, with the added insight from having had to write it all up, I’d say it ranks quite high on the … Read more “Times 27,131: Maxim Gun vs Epigram Cannon”
Month: August 2018
Times Quick Cryptic No 1169 by Rongo – Salad Days
A fresh and simple mixed salad from Rongo, the god of cultivated plants*, today. One or two crunchy bits, but nothing meaty, only a bit of fish. A good mix of clue flavours and nicely … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1169 by Rongo – Salad Days”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1168 by Hurley
I came in a minute or so under my target with no major holdups beyond an unparsed 22ac, so on the gentle side of average difficulty. There were three instances of directly using the words … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1168 by Hurley”
Times 27130, Thursday, 30 August 2018 A Wimsey
Not the most testing of grids today, which I breezed through in 16 minutes, including parsing even when the answer was obvious and checking for typos, such is my devotion to duty. The top left … Read more “Times 27130, Thursday, 30 August 2018 A Wimsey”
Times 27129 – not the usual Wednesday challenge, but pleasant enough.
For some reason I began this from bottom right to top left, but none of it did I find hard, twenty minutes had it done even with a couple of interruptions by the telephone. A … Read more “Times 27129 – not the usual Wednesday challenge, but pleasant enough.”
Quick Cryptic 1167 by Mara
A striaghtforward puzzle with only 13ac (LOI) holding things up for me. I was trying to make an anagram of ‘complex Briton’ to no avail. I had to go back and check what was going on at … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1167 by Mara”
Times Cryptic 27128
Solving time: 26 minutes. Straightforward. A typical first-working day-of-the-week Times puzzle. Enjoyable but with no particularly outstanding features. As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, … Read more “Times Cryptic 27128”
Times Quick Cryptic 1166 by Joker.
Like yesterday’s I started off at a sprint, especially the left side, but then struggled with some of the chewier clues. I was left staring at the last two – COD 7dn then LOI 16ac … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1166 by Joker.”
QC 1165 by Flamande
Fairly straightforward this one. I certainly came in at under 10 minutes but was interrupted by having to perform baggage checks for my wife who has been called away to Dubai at short notice on … Read more “QC 1165 by Flamande”
Times 27127 – Syracuse, not Thebes
Time: 30 minutes, more or less, interrupted by a phone call from my brotherMusic: Stan Getz, Reflections I just happened to notice that this was a Bank Holiday puzzle, and was fearing the worst. Fortunately, … Read more “Times 27127 – Syracuse, not Thebes”