Straightforward by Friday standards, with a lot of clues that I think of as Cryptic Jumbo-type constructions, nothing too fancy or frivolous. FOI 4ac, LOI 23ac. I mostly liked the “always ignores over” device in … Read more “Times 27,851: The Hills Are Alive With The Sound Of Clue-sic”
Month: December 2020
Times Quick Cryptic No 1768 by Izetti
Bit of a chewy one today from Izetti: I did yesterday’s just beforehand in 7 minutes and this in 13. I was held up slightly at the end at 6d/16ac, but the grid was half … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1768 by Izetti”
27850 Thursday, 17 December 2020 Say no more.
A pretty whizzy solve today after yesterday’s championship swine, which occupied me more or less straight through for a second or so under 13 minutes. Even the plant at 16 was familiar enough for me … Read more “27850 Thursday, 17 December 2020 Say no more.”
Times 27849 – three strikes and I’m out
Olivia (for one) can confirm or otherwise that this was the third of the “didn’t happen” TCC puzzles last month, as she managed to download it before it vanished from the website. If it is, … Read more “Times 27849 – three strikes and I’m out”
Times Quick Cryptic 1767 by Teazel
Well that was a struggle! I couldn’t get any of the perimeter clues at the top of the grid, nor did any of the long answers jump out. The SW proved a little more tractable, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1767 by Teazel”
Times Cryptic 27848
Solving time: 40 minutes, but this was a technical DNF. As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in curly brackets} and [anagrinds, containment, reversal and other indicators in square ones]. … Read more “Times Cryptic 27848”
Times Quick Cryptic 1766 by Wurm
After a great start with 1ac and 1dn going in straight away, it went rather downhill from there so I’m happy that I managed to struggle home just 10 seconds under 10 minutes. COD 21ac … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1766 by Wurm”
Times 27847 – Mad Plan leads to Nervous Antelope
Time: 20 minutesMusic: Holst, The Planets, Previn/LSO We’re back to a typical Monday, as I trotted through in 20 minutes with scarcely a pause….except to erase answers I had put in the completely wrong place: … Read more “Times 27847 – Mad Plan leads to Nervous Antelope”
QC 1765 by Oink
After having had a long run of very easy Monday puzzles we have had two on my watch that I believe have been a bit more difficult. I found this a medium challenge in QC … Read more “QC 1765 by Oink”
Sunday Times 4932 by Robert Price
27:28. Phew! That was tough, but also absolutely superb. So many clues that appeared completely baffling until the eventual PDM (penny-dropping moment), but none of the difficulty is a result of obscure vocabulary. Loads of … Read more “Sunday Times 4932 by Robert Price”