Time: 26:31, a little more than the additional minute I’ve scored over each of the first three this week. In several entries, working out how the wordplay worked was a stiffer challenge than sticking in … Read more “29446, feeling a bit under par.”
Month: January 2026
Quick Cryptic 3205 by Apus
A lovely puzzle from a new setter, a bit on the tricky side.
Times Cryptic 29445 – A History Lesson
Hello again. I found this one about average difficulty, at least by current standards.
Times Quick Cryptic No 3204 by Izetti – Order, order!
Pretty quick, but needed to double check my final answer
Too Many Requests
Apologies to all for this ongoing problem. Our tech team have been working on this for some time without success. We identified a bug in one of our core plug-ins that was causing the site to call itself frequently when finding avatar images. That was fixed with a new version of the plug-in but the error hasn’t stopped occurring. Repeated interactions with Bluehost support have not yet resolved the issue. It has been escalated to the core technical team and we expect a response from them in the next 72 hours. Thank-you all for your continuing patience and I hope we get it resolved soon. P.S. When the problem happens it occurs just after the hour mark and site comes back 1 hour later, so if you see the issue please wait until after the next hour mark to try again. All users get the same message. Don’t take it personally!
QC 3203 by Jalna
Tough challenge from Jalna today, nudging me over my target time
Times Cryptic 29444
One hour over two sessions. Not easy – or was it me?
From the Editor, Jason Crampton
Jason has been kind enough to post a reply to the complaints about extremely difficult puzzles on Friday.
Times Quick Cryptic 3202 by Trelawney – first aid
Hello everyone. It’s been a while since I’ve encountered Trelawney on blogging day and I was happy to see him. Solving was nice and smooth, with a big smile at 13d. Ouch! Thanks Trelawney!
Times 29443 – Monday – another tricky day?
I seem to have found this puzzle a lot harder than everyone else, but the leaderboard and the SNITCH seem to be surprisingly sparse.