Introduction 12:08, with nearly half that time spent on 12 Across. The vast majority of the puzzle went in quite easily, so I imagine I’ll be outpaced by many. Solutions A brief summary of cryptic … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1772 by Mara”
Month: December 2020
Times Cryptic 27854
Solving time: 38 minutes with the unknown 3dn as my last one in entirely responsible for me missing my half-hour target. Other than that this seemed quite easy. As usual definitions are underlined in bold … Read more “Times Cryptic 27854”
Times Quick Cryptic 1771 by Joker
I find the difficulty of this one hard to call. I seemed to struggle throughout yet surprised myself by finishing in 8:53. FOI 1ac and then I worked down the LHS before getting checkers to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1771 by Joker”
Times 27853 – A Knot in the Tail
As hinted at in my heading, the last couple here were a mite tricky, I thought. The rest? Well, very Mondayish, indeed. Plusjeremy will be looking at a mohnesque time, I reckon, if he knows … Read more “Times 27853 – A Knot in the Tail”
Times Quick Cryptic 1770 by Tracy
At 7 minutes I found this one straightforward but I shall be interested to read how others fared, especially our most recent recruits. Before getting down to business, Jonathan (vinyl1) has asked me to post … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1770 by Tracy”
Mephisto 3146 – He’s ready for take-off….
I didn’t get on that well in this one, as there were a few clues that gave me a lot of difficulty – and in fact, there are one or two I still can’t explain. … Read more “Mephisto 3146 – He’s ready for take-off….”
Sunday Times Cryptic No 4933 by David McLean — Take it easy on the curves…
What a tonic for my nerves… I indicate (man as rag)* like this, and italicize anagrinds in the clues. ACROSS 1 Country girl on booze university … (8) PORTUGAL — PORT, “booze” with GAL, “girl” + U(niversity) attached 5 … lectured for … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No 4933 by David McLean — Take it easy on the curves…”
Times Cryptic No 27846 – Saturday, 12 December 2020. Lost for words.
In the quiz category “crosswords as a foreign language”, I did quite poorly on vocabulary this week! The answers at 2dn and 6dn have both come up occasionally before, as has the word for “seaweed” … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27846 – Saturday, 12 December 2020. Lost for words.”
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1471 – The one where I can’t think of a clever title
I’m guessing this was of roughly average difficulty. I was watching football on the telly at the same time as solving so my time of just over an hour isn’t really a reliable guide. Writing … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1471 – The one where I can’t think of a clever title”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1769 by Orpheus
Orpheus is the provider of our Quick Crossword today. I found it not as hard as the last two I blogged, although I suspect a couple of bits of less common vocabulary may lead to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1769 by Orpheus”