As usual I feel mildly sorry for those who spurn the MCS because the vocabulary is too difficult – they are missing some of the best clues of the month, every month. As usual there … Read more “Monthly Club Special 20,226: A Void (Lik Th Plagu)!”
Month: July 2019
Times 27417 – back with a whimper
Having relocated reasonably smoothly to the Land of Hope and Glory, I was ready for a tough challenge and hoping to produce a witty, erudite blog, up to the standard of my excellent locum of … Read more “Times 27417 – back with a whimper”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1407 by Teazel
Introduction Filling in this week. A very enjoyable puzzle, which I did not finish, on account of needing to look up shore birds at 1 Across, and Russian rivers at 2 Down. Teazel made me … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1407 by Teazel”
Times Cryptic 27416
A mostly excellent puzzle but I didn’t find it easy and needed 2 minutes short of an hour to complete it. Great examples today of an &lit clue and a cryptic each of the highest … Read more “Times Cryptic 27416”
Times Quick Cryptic 1406 by Pedro
Just on 11 minutes – having made a very fast start with the biffometer up into the red zone, things slowed down a lot in the NW. LOI 8dn after I eventually worked out 12ac. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1406 by Pedro”
QC 1405 by Izetti
No idea about time, done in the middle of other tasks and interruptions, but it felt like medium difficulty to me. FOI 5A. LOI 10D and I think that must also be my COD. Nothing … Read more “QC 1405 by Izetti”
Times 27415 – Peanuts and a prize!
Time: 39 minutes Music: Rawsthorne, Clarinet Concerto, Thea King I proceeded rapidly through this easy Monday puzzle – for a while. Then I discovered that after solving most of the clues, I was left with … Read more “Times 27415 – Peanuts and a prize!”
Sunday Times 4860 by Robert Price
23.32. I’m on holiday this week, so will keep it brief. I found this puzzle quite hard, but a lot of fun to solve. Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated like (TIHS)*, anagram indicators are in … Read more “Sunday Times 4860 by Robert Price”
Mephisto 3073 – Don Manley
Strange solving process for this one, as I started at the bottom and worked my way up. On a first reading of clues I could not get a single one in the top half of … Read more “Mephisto 3073 – Don Manley”
Times Cryptic No 27408 – Saturday, 20 July 2019. All the lonely people …
Today’s puzzle is packed full of brilliant clues. Well done, setter! I got the four 15-letter answers fairly early, but even they didn’t 9ac re the rest of the answers. I was at a bit … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27408 – Saturday, 20 July 2019. All the lonely people …”