Hi everybody. I hope 2024 is treating you well. This puzzle certainly treated me well as I came home comfortably inside my inner target time and enjoyed the ride as usual. Thanks Orpheus!
Month: January 2024
Times 28807 – On to Constance…..
This should have been a very easy puzzle, and I did race through most of it. Most of the across clues went in on the first go-round, and I had plenty of crossing letters for the downs.
Mephisto 3305 – Tim Moorey
Greetings, barred-grid fans, Tricky one this time around from Tim Moorey, I thought. Not that many unusual terms as answers, but crafty clues and tricky wordplay. A reminder that in Mephisto puzzles, definitions can be … Read more “Mephisto 3305 – Tim Moorey”
Sunday Times 5092 by Robert Price
11:05. This wasn’t particularly difficult but I thought it was a delightful puzzle, with lots of concise and elegant clues: the perfect way to end the crosswording year. The anagram at 16ac is a cracker, … Read more “Sunday Times 5092 by Robert Price”
Times Quick Cryptic 2565 by Wurm
Our first Saturday QC has landed!
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1650 – 26 December 2023
Hello all, and Happy New Year. I like to blog when the puzzle is fresh in my mind (which should mean doing the write up early but in practice means leaving the solve until the last minute too). Not something I managed with this one – and with all the fun and games on Boxing Day, I don’t think the puzzle was fresh in my mind even at the time! All I remember is that I found it rather tricky and did look up one or two things. Had to work quite hard to parse some of it a second time around as well. My COD is 46d, which really tickled me. Thanks setter.
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1649 – 23rd December 2023
Solved in one session I found this fairly easy.
Times Cryptic 28800 – Sat, 30 Dec 2023. No fireworks.
Plenty of fireworks on New Year’s Eve, but this puzzle was relatively gentle.
Quick Cryptic 2564 by Hurley
I enjoyed this. Medium difficulty, some nice surfaces and a couple of good hidden words that I took a while to spot. On-par 6 minutes for me Across 1 Astute Kate maybe seen with daughter … Read more “Quick Cryptic 2564 by Hurley”
Times Cryptic No 28805 — My idea of a good evening
21:31. Often a puzzle will be obviously easy or hard. This was not one of those puzzles for me. It started very easy and I thought it might be one of my fastest solves yet. But then things got more difficult, and I don’t know if that reflects my fatigue or the true nature of the puzzle. In any case, I finished in a decent time, although some clues I didn’t fully parse while solving.