Time: 27 miinutesMusic: Wagner, Tristan and Isolde Prelude, Klemperer This was pretty much a typical Monday puzzle, well-clued but rather straightforward. I would have been much faster, but I just could not come up with … Read more “Times 27775 – Vanilla city!”
Month: September 2020
Mephisto 3133: Don Manley
Oh dear, I appear to have been migrated to a new posting system, which removes the colours and the spacing of the automated blog poster that I have been using. I hope it is still … Read more “Mephisto 3133: Don Manley”
Sunday Times 4920 by Robert Price
12:33. A characteristically witty puzzle from Bob this week. I think my favourite clues were the outrageous 2dn and the brilliant 21dn, but there’s lots of fun stuff in here. Definitions are underlined, anagrams indicated … Read more “Sunday Times 4920 by Robert Price”
Times Cryptic No 27768 – Saturday, 12 September 2020. Que sera, sera.
A puzzle with middle of the road difficulty, but much to enjoy, including three nice homophones. Some nice hints of fate and eternity at 9ac and 3dn, but my favourite was 24ac which made me … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27768 – Saturday, 12 September 2020. Que sera, sera.”
Jumbo 1458
I think this was a reasonable Jumbo, although some of the parsing was a bit of a struggle when writing this up, with 20D and 52D becoming clearer as I went through the puzzle again. … Read more “Jumbo 1458”
Quick Cryptic 1704 by Joker
I found this thoroughly enjoyable. Some fairly convoluted wordplay, but not too difficult. Describing a banjo as a ‘sort of guitar’ sounds like it might upset a purist somewhere. 6 minutes Across 1 Miser upset … Read more “Quick Cryptic 1704 by Joker”
Times 27,773: Gimme Shelter
Not the hardest end to a week but not without its tricky clues. It feels like a long time since I could last say it was one corner giving me particular trouble, but I ground … Read more “Times 27,773: Gimme Shelter”
Times 27772 – my first palindrome!
Time taken: 13:14, although even with checking through my answers I managed a particularly silly typo at 13 down, which was one of the ones I felt good about parsing. I think this is a … Read more “Times 27772 – my first palindrome!”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1703 by Pedro
It is about 6 months since I blogged a Pedro QC, and it is nice to see him back on my bailiwick as I managed to solve this, just, inside my 15 minute target. Some … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1703 by Pedro”
Times 27771 – Bally dancing
17a is not a place to be seen wearing green. It’s Liam Neeson’s home town; he was offered the freedom of the borough but the charming DUP blocked that and gave it to Ian Paisley … Read more “Times 27771 – Bally dancing”