Once again the most perfectly constructed puzzle of the Club month, with some truly ridiculous words that you’d never believe could be wrangled into yielding such splendid and audacious surfaces, balanced out with plenty of … Read more “Monthly Club Special 20,238: A 13ac Cluesack Writes”
Month: July 2020
Times Quick Cryptic No 1669 by Breadman
Not the easiest of Quick Crosswords today, I think, with quite a range of general knowledge needed including a Japanese healing technique, an anti-ship missile, a medicinal herb, a film director and geography from around … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1669 by Breadman”
Times 27,731: One Who May Resist A Parsing
I found this easyish for a Friday but containing many features that may prove Marmitey: multiple crossreferences, unusual words clued by anagrams, words that might be easily misspelling if you aren’t paying close attention to … Read more “Times 27,731: One Who May Resist A Parsing”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1668 by Izetti
A tough one today from Izetti, broadly on a par with Monday’s and Tuesday’s 15×15 puzzles, and I bunged in 1d with no great certainty just to creep in under the 16 minute mark. We … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1668 by Izetti”
27730 Thursday, 30 July 2020 …is brought to you today by the letter J and the number 8
A rather entertaining number which kept me scrabbling around for almost 26 minutes and sent me hunting more often than usual for the J key. In the end, there are only (only!) 5 in the … Read more “27730 Thursday, 30 July 2020 …is brought to you today by the letter J and the number 8”
Times 27729 – gentle for Gentiles and such.
A pleasant if unexceptional puzzle today, the word play is fairly straightforward and I expect to see a low SNITCH value. It took me 15 minutes and nothing was hard to parse. Across 1 Cheer … Read more “Times 27729 – gentle for Gentiles and such.”
Times Quick Cryptic 1667 by Oink
Not my fastest time for an Oink, but I can’t tell if that’s the result of me being offline for a week or so, or if it’s really a tester. I put my LOI 22ac … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1667 by Oink”
Times Cryptic 27728
I completed all but 14dn and 20ac in 26 minutes, but when I hadn’t solved them within my 30 minute target I decided to set the puzzle aside and return to it later. This tactic … Read more “Times Cryptic 27728”
Times Quick Cryptic 1666 by Corelli – feel the heat
Cap’n Corelli in good form, producing a very challenging puzzle with a sting in the tail and a theme. Click ‘read more’ for more details. Slow, quick slow for me today with the SW proving … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1666 by Corelli – feel the heat”
QC 1665 by Teazel
I have had some very easy Monday crosswords in recent weeks. This one was also quite straightforward although I would say it was slightly more difficult than the others. It also contained some very entertaining … Read more “QC 1665 by Teazel”