This was a puzzle of about average difficulty, I thought, with a couple of unknowns and partially-knowns to spice things up. FOI 7A, LOI 52A, twin CODs to 28A and 24D for the surfaces. Compliments … Read more “Jumbo 1355”
Month: December 2018
Times 27,227: Should Overwordiness Be Forgot And Never Brought To Mind?
A verbose crossword with some quite obscure vocabulary in it (ARTICLING and especially SOCLE leap to mind), I suppose I must deem this suitably Fridayish in that it took me well over twice as long … Read more “Times 27,227: Should Overwordiness Be Forgot And Never Brought To Mind?”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1249 by Hurley
Like Mara’s puzzle on Wednesday, we have one for anagram fans today, with no less than 5 bits of unscrambling to do – and I failed solve any of them at first glance. In fact I failed … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1249 by Hurley”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1248 by Oink
I was a bit shy of 12 minutes, held up a touch by carelessly bunged in last letter at 1ac. I was also held up by an admiration of a good number of the clues, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1248 by Oink”
Times Cryptic No 27226, Thursday, 20 December 2018 When’s the coach due?
Oh now come on, this was not difficult, unless you know neither the spy nor the poet at 16 down. I, however, buoyed perhaps by the mighty Spurs’ triumph over A***nal, managed to breezily muck … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27226, Thursday, 20 December 2018 When’s the coach due?”
Times 27225 – TCC Heat 2 third puzzle. Climb every mountain…
I began this with some trepidation, having read in previous weeks that it was harder than the other two in this heat. I was surprised to find, IMO, it was not so hard. Apart from … Read more “Times 27225 – TCC Heat 2 third puzzle. Climb every mountain…”
Quick Cryptic 1247 by Mara
Plenty of clearly signposted anagrams and double definitions make this a highly accessible quickie. Provided you didn’t have to struggle with the (fairly mild) bit of Far Eastern geography and cricketing terminology, I suspect that 14dn may be the … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1247 by Mara”
Times Cryptic 27224
I completed this in 30 minutes, only just running over my target half-hour. There were a few unknown words and meanings along the way but the wordplay was helpful, even generous at times. As usual … Read more “Times Cryptic 27224”
Times Quick Cryptic 1246 by Orpheus
A quick quickie today – I went from top to bottom, latching on to a checker each time. No hold ups (except a pause for reflection on the spelling of 7ac) and sprinted across the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1246 by Orpheus”
QC 1245 by Izetti
Oh dear, I think I made a bit of a meal of this one. Managed it in 10 minutes but I feel as though I should have been posting a PB down around the 6-minute … Read more “QC 1245 by Izetti”