Solving time: 36 minutes. This was a very steady solve but I wasn ‘t quite fast enough to achieve my target half-hour. As usual definitions are underlined in bold italics, {deletions and substitutions are in … Read more “Times Cryptic 28070”
Month: August 2021
Times Quick Cryptic 1951 by Joker
Interesting – as I finished, I thought I could have done better than just missing my ten minute target. Having now completed the blog, I find that this was probably a good biffing puzzle – … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1951 by Joker”
Times 28069
I am a little dischuffed, alas. It was tough enough not having the crossword code, since I am using my daughter’s boyfriend’s PC and keyboard, which is for good measure set up in Spanish. It … Read more “Times 28069”
Times Quick Cryptic 1950 by Jalna
Solving time: 8 minutes. This is only Jalna’s 9th puzzle so his style may seem a little different, but perhaps I’m getting used to him as this was the very first time I have solved … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1950 by Jalna”
Mephisto 3182 – No biffing, please!
This was not too terribly hard, and it was possible to look up a number of the answers with the starting letters. However, Q-Boat was rather difficult, and required a dictionary search, since E-Boat and … Read more “Mephisto 3182 – No biffing, please!”
Sunday Times Cryptic 4969 by David McLean — A man’s a man for a’ that
I didn’t work this in one go. Finished sometime Sunday (yesterday [last week]). It was striking that “man” or “men” was used in a few (clues or answers) and every time in a different sense … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4969 by David McLean — A man’s a man for a’ that”
Times Cryptic No 28062 – Saturday, 21 August 2021. Sufferin’ succotash!
I didn’t know the answer for 11ac, so I had to appeal to Sylvester the cat for guidance. Nor did I know the place at 4dn, but the duck at 6ac rang a faint bell … Read more “Times Cryptic No 28062 – Saturday, 21 August 2021. Sufferin’ succotash!”
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1512 – 14th August
An interesting Jumbo with several unknowns for me and some chewyiness in places… which I enjoy in a Jumbo. I was slow getting started and never really on the wavelength. In all I thought it … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1512 – 14th August”
Times Quick Cryptic No 1949 by Izetti
A rather tricky but perfectly fair challenge for us for the end of the week from Don with the usual neat and precise clues and some nice pieces of misdirection. I found it at the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1949 by Izetti”
Times 28,067: Who’s Been Cluing My Porridge?
No real hard vocab this Friday – unless you want to count OVIFORM – and mostly uncomplicated cluing, but a fair challenge nonetheless. I mostly liked seeing GCHQ as wordplay fodder, “cryptically relaxed” for DIAL … Read more “Times 28,067: Who’s Been Cluing My Porridge?”