I thought this was an elegant puzzle, the best on Wednesday for a while, not difficult but with some clever, smooth surfaces and no MERs for me. I went astray at first with 15a and … Read more “Times 27483 – crosswordy swimming practice”
Month: October 2019
Times Quick Cryptic No 1462 by Mara
Introduction Hats off to any puzzle that makes me take 23 minutes to finish. I was well-stymied in the upper-right while trying to take care of kiddos… my head wasn’t really in the game! Most … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1462 by Mara”
Times Cryptic 27482
Solving time: 38 minutes. There were a couple of unfamiliar words here but the answers came easily enough from wordplay, which is as things should be so I have no complaints. Much more enjoyabe than yesterday’s strange … Read more “Times Cryptic 27482”
Times Quick Cryptic 1461 by Breadman
Hmph! For me, the ‘Q’ in this one stood for Quite hard and I felt lucky to come in on 14 minutes. The odd tea and haircut I could have lived with, but what was … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1461 by Breadman”
Times 27481 – Under the wether
Just the bare bones of a blog today, as I am suffering from a lurgy. This one took me around 40 minutes and has some very nice stuff. If you have queries, please ask, and … Read more “Times 27481 – Under the wether”
Times Quick Cryptic 1460 by Teazel
Solving time: 10 minutes but I needed at least 1 minute to find a clue that I could solve at first glance. Once I had got going it all fell into place fairly rapidly. As … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1460 by Teazel”
Mephisto 3084 – Paul McKenna
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 3084 – Paul McKenna”
Sunday Times Cryptic 4871, 6 X 2019, by David McLean — In good form
Me, I’ve had a cold since last Saturday, but this puzzle is hale and hearty, and its wit could’ve cheered you up if you’d caught a chill with the onset of the season mentioned in … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4871, 6 X 2019, by David McLean — In good form”
Times Cryptic No 27474 – Saturday, 5 October, 2019.
This was at the easier end of Saturday puzzles. The combination of the creative device at 1ac (my favourite clue) and my fanciful biff at 2dn held me up near the end. Thanks to the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27474 – Saturday, 5 October, 2019.”
Jumbo 1403
This blog has more verbose explanations of solutions than most of mine, as there were a couple of tortuous ones and I could not think of any more succinct way to explain them (1A, 22A, … Read more “Jumbo 1403”