Good quality puzzle from Tracy, somewhere around the average difficulty mark. I finished a few seconds under my target with a few unparsed. Not too much in the way of obscurity, but there are a … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1378 by Tracy”
Month: June 2019
No 27382, Thursday, 20 June 2019 No gnu flag
I found this on the tough side, taking a pleasingly alliterative (anumertive?) 32.32 to complete, though Love Island was burbling in the background courtesy of Mrs Z and may hae been a disturbance to the … Read more “No 27382, Thursday, 20 June 2019 No gnu flag”
Times 27381 – footwear fine, trousers needed redressing.
Another fine crossword of medium difficulty, with a couple of somewhat obscure answers at 7d and 3d which were gettable from wordplay if you weren’t a topologist or a bullfight enthusiast. The rest was good … Read more “Times 27381 – footwear fine, trousers needed redressing.”
Times Quick Cryptic 1377 by Oink
All the vocabulary known to me today, and the clues were easy enough to unpick, which led to a pretty quick time. I had to return to the two longish anagrams at the top and … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1377 by Oink”
Times Cryptic 27380
I spent 38 minutes on this but failed to finish without reference to aids. The level of difficulty varied from clues that would not be out of place in the QC to a couple that would have been … Read more “Times Cryptic 27380”
Times Quick Cryptic 1376 by Izetti
All bar one went in uncharacteristically fast for an Izetti – in about 8 minutes. That one was 21ac which, with all the checkers had me stumped. I could see a name which fitted but … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1376 by Izetti”
Times 27379 – Citrus deluxe!
Time: 28 minutesMusic: Dvorak, Symphony 7, Davis/LSO This is a fairly easy Monday puzzle, well-suited to biffing. As I begin to write the blog, I have parsed fewer than half the clues, but I can … Read more “Times 27379 – Citrus deluxe!”
QC 1375 by Teazel
Average difficulty for me. Would have probably been about the 8-minute mark had I not got held up slightly by 14A (see below) which was my LOI. FOI was 9A and COD goes to 5D. … Read more “QC 1375 by Teazel”
Sunday Times 4854 by Robert Price – so much winning
10:30. Another excellent puzzle from Bob, which I didn’t find particularly hard but nonetheless managed to stuff up, paying insufficient attention to the wordplay at 13ac and bunging in the wrong vehicle. Drat. Loads of … Read more “Sunday Times 4854 by Robert Price – so much winning”
Mephisto 3067 – Don Manley
A fine Mephisto for wordplay, which is to be expected from Don Manley, where my usual approach is wordplay first, and then check the definition. It also helped in this one that two of the … Read more “Mephisto 3067 – Don Manley”