A devious puzzle, riddled with cunning definitions, that I counted myself lucky to finish in ~10 minutes, post boozy pub quiz (we won! yay). Some obscure vocab should have slowed most solvers down – if … Read more “Times 27,287: Mightier Than The Sorb”
Month: February 2019
Times Quick Cryptic No 1298 by Pedro
Pleasant puzzle from Pedro – I worked through it fairly steadily and crept in a few seconds under my target. Looking back over it there seems to be a bit of an over-reliance on the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1298 by Pedro”
Times 27286 – where’s ya wheelie bin?
Time taken: 8:46 – I thought I was on my way to a personal best, but I got stuck on the last three and had to get some paper and start scribbling letter combinations before … Read more “Times 27286 – where’s ya wheelie bin?”
Times 27285 – Not Harry Potter, or a 3a question
I pottered through this pleasant little challenge in my target of twenty minutes or so, held up at the end by 25a until I saw the devious definition. I think Mr Setter or Mr Editor … Read more “Times 27285 – Not Harry Potter, or a 3a question”
Times Quick Cryptic 1297 by Aureliano
A new setter, and some new vocabulary for me at 16dn. I found the bottom half harder than the top, and had to think a bit to untangle some of the wordplay, but still managed … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1297 by Aureliano”
Times Cryptic 27284
I hope I was not alone in finding this very hard. My solving time was off the scale (84 minutes, if you must know) much of which was spent stuck, gazing at the page completely baffled, … Read more “Times Cryptic 27284”
Times Quick Cryptic 1296 by Teazel
Inside my target with 9:13. Some satisfying head scratch moments but still quite quick. A tip of the hat to Teazel for 18dn and 23ac. ACROSS 1. PROMPTER – double definition. One feeding (lines/cues to) … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1296 by Teazel”
QC 1295 by Hurley
Another skeletal blog from me this week I am afraid. Too much going on in real life for me to spend much time on it. Gradually managing to clear my backlog of 15x15s I am … Read more “QC 1295 by Hurley”
Times 27283 – Live from Avignon!
Time: 27 minutesMusic: Bach, Goldberg Variations, Glenn Gould I didn’t think this puzzle was going to be difficult at first, as I filled in the whole left side starting from 1 across. However, things got … Read more “Times 27283 – Live from Avignon!”
Sunday Times 4838 by Dean Mayer
11:50. I found this pretty easy for one of Dean’s, but it is typically brilliant in a way I’ve tried to highlight below. Significantly though this week’s puzzle isn’t one of Jeff Pearce’s: as Peter … Read more “Sunday Times 4838 by Dean Mayer”