My time shows up on the board as 18.48, but that’s only because I had to sort out an internet fubar which delayed the submission of my pink square blemished grid by some 4 minutes. … Read more “27754 Thursday, 27 August 2020 “David and Solomon lived very merry lives””
Month: August 2020
Times 27753 – a tail of Peter Rabbit.
A bit of a Curate’s Egg for me, this one. Almost all of it went in and was understood in 15 minutes, but a few stubborn clues had to be biffed and deciphered (or possibly … Read more “Times 27753 – a tail of Peter Rabbit.”
Times Quick Cryptic 1687 by Mara
I raced through this one, helped by plenty of double definitions and opportunities to biff. I did pause on blogging at 16dn thinking that some double duty was afoot, and at 5dn wondering if the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1687 by Mara”
Times Cryptic 27752
This was fairly straightforward but I needed 42 minutes to complete it, missing my target by 12. There were a couple of unknowns but the wordplay got me to the answers. As usual definitions are … Read more “Times Cryptic 27752”
Times Quick Cryptic 1686 by Orpheus
A hold up on 1ac and 3dn delayed my finish to 10 seconds outside my target of 10 minutes. No grumps from me, though, as I enjoyed this one a lot. Clues to enjoy around … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1686 by Orpheus”
Times 27751 – Not too woolly….
Time: 24 minutesMusic: Mozart, Oboe Concerto, Hollinger/de Waart This was a typical Monday puzzle, except for one clue which may cause trouble. A number of bloggers and commenters have said they fnd this objectionable, but … Read more “Times 27751 – Not too woolly….”
QC 1685 by Hurley
Once again I don’t have much time for anything more than the usual stats. Again I felt this was of medium QC difficulty similar to the last one I blogged and certainly a step up … Read more “QC 1685 by Hurley”
Mephisto 3129 – Paul McKenna
Fun puzzle, this one – you can trust the wordplay to get the large number of unusual terms in the grid. Another grid with 90-degree symmetry, it seems we are getting more of these lately. … Read more “Mephisto 3129 – Paul McKenna”
Sunday Times 4916 by Dean Mayer
29:22. I found this extremely hard, for reasons that I can actually put my finger on for a change. Dean’s cryptic definitions are often tricky, and I was particularly slow in seeing them in this … Read more “Sunday Times 4916 by Dean Mayer”
Times Cryptic No 27744 – Saturday, 15 August 2020. Lift, separate … and seek enlightenment
This flowed steadily for the most part. There seemed to be more clues than usual that required one to “lift and separate” common phrases into individual words, but on review perhaps not. All went smoothly … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27744 – Saturday, 15 August 2020. Lift, separate … and seek enlightenment”