A fairly straightforward puzzle if you could get on its likeable and humorous wavelength. I mostly did, with a few caveats: a careless WATCHWORD as my FOI left me puzzling about how my LOI 1dn … Read more “Times 27,401: 16ac, Boris Johnson, Please”
Month: July 2019
Times Quick Cryptic No 1393 by Orpheus
Gentle enough puzzle, perhaps, but that didn’t stop me incorrectly guessing the girl at 24ac and giving 6d less than a minute’s consideration before giving up and sticking in the only remotely plausible answer that … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1393 by Orpheus”
Times 27400 – you may remember this
Time taken: 13:01 but with one silly typo at 15 down keeping me from the leaderboard. From looking at the early finishers, this is on the difficult side, nobody is under 10 minutes. Odd puzzle … Read more “Times 27400 – you may remember this”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1392 by Pedro
Introduction I’m usually pretty tolerant when it comes to cryptic clues, but I have to complain about 20 Across, which seems to me utterly ambiguous. It didn’t at the time of solving, and I got … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1392 by Pedro”
Times Cryptic 27399 Pip’s got a busy week.
Yes, it’s me again. When I blithely agreed to babysit Pip’s slot this week I didn’t immediately have in mind that the previous 2 Wednesday puzzles that fell to his lot had been brutes, or … Read more “Times Cryptic 27399 Pip’s got a busy week.”
Times Cryptic 27398
There were one or two tricky or unknown bits and pieces here but I was not delayed by much and missed my half-hour target only by 2 minutes. As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, … Read more “Times Cryptic 27398”
Times Quick Cryptic 1391 by Mara
I wasn’t on form for this one – it took me 13 minutes but I don’t think it’ll pose any problems for the old hands. As a case in point I had two inexplicable blank … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1391 by Mara”
Times 27397 – The Last Savages?
Some of you reading this may remember two time-travelling tales I was importuned to bring you a while back. While those of us who were privy to the remarkable events of those days knew that … Read more “Times 27397 – The Last Savages?”
Times Quick Cryptic 1390 by Joker
At 9 minutes this seemed quite straightforward to me with few if any unknown words or meanings, but I’m sure as always opinions will differ so I shall be interested to read what others made … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1390 by Joker”
Mephisto 3070 by Don Manley
Unless you’re very experienced you are unlikely to solve a Mephisto without using Chambers. The idea is that you use the precise wordplay to derive an answer that you then verify in the dictionary. 13A … Read more “Mephisto 3070 by Don Manley”