This was in the Goldilocks zone for me – not too hard, not too easy, and with much to enjoy. I smiled at the cunning definitions of 16 and 26ac, and admired the unusual wordplay … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27516 – Saturday, 23 November 2019. Goldilocks!”
Month: November 2019
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1410 – 16th November. Loadsatime
Hello everyone. This was a tricky one, I thought – and I hope you did too, because I had to use solving aids in places. Moreover, the whole thing took me a time which I … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1410 – 16th November. Loadsatime”
Quick Cryptic 1494 by Hurley
A pleasant 6-minute solve for me. Plenty of anagrams, a couple of double definitions, and a very nice triple, too which you don’t see often in the QC. I was more thrown by the few that were … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1494 by Hurley”
As Easy As 1ac-2ac-3ac
A simple race to the finish this Friday, with almost every answer being one of the first things you’d think of once you’ve located the definition. FOI 1ac, LOI 3dn. I preferred the slightly more … Read more “As Easy As 1ac-2ac-3ac”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1493 by Des
I think I have blogged a Des puzzle only once before, in the New Year of 2017, when I found his style entertaining and accommodating. I have no time for you today, as several serious … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1493 by Des”
Times 27520 – who wants to bee a farmer?
Time taken: 13:12. Most of this went in pretty quickly, but there was some head scratching over the last five or so, particularly the crossing of 13 across and 5 down, which were my last … Read more “Times 27520 – who wants to bee a farmer?”
Times 27519 – cor blimey it’s the vernal and the vernacular.
Highly amusing puzzle today, with some tricky post-biff parsing for your blogger once the grid was completed in about half an hour. Compliments to the setter, please give me one of these every Wednesday!Special mentions … Read more “Times 27519 – cor blimey it’s the vernal and the vernacular.”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1492 by Teazel
Introduction Would have finished just under 6 minutes, which is exceptionally quick for me. But I took an extra 70 seconds to figure out 20 Across, which I only got by trawling the alphabet for … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1492 by Teazel”
Times Cryptic 27518
Solving time: 28 minutes. This was an easy puzzle but blogging it was much harder work. As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and … Read more “Times Cryptic 27518”
Times Quick Cryptic 1491 by Joker
Still in my run of 12 minute solves so either I’m getting slower or the QCs have upped their game a bit. There seemed to be a lot of positional clues throughout this crossword and … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1491 by Joker”