Author: branch

This puzzle was more challenging than recent Saturdays, all thanks to clever clues, not obscurities. I didn’t note the exact order, but 10ac, 4dn, 7dn and 23ac all went in quickly. When three quarters were … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27750 – Saturday, 22 August 2020. Wot’s that you zed?”

This flowed steadily for the most part. There seemed to be more clues than usual that required one to “lift and separate” common phrases into individual words, but on review perhaps not. All went smoothly … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27744 – Saturday, 15 August 2020. Lift, separate … and seek enlightenment”

This felt relatively straightforward, tho with a few unknowns, which could all be overcome. Much use of first or last letters of words, or both. I liked 3dn because it seemed so obvious the clue … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27738 – Saturday, 8 August 2020. Have a banana!”

This felt like a typical Saturday offering. When solving on paper, I often look at the clues at the bottom of the page first, and so my FOI was 25dn. I didn’t know the reference … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27732 – Saturday, 1 August 2020. Feast your eyes on these 7dns.”

This was all done at a relatively brisk pace, although I had an unaccountable block at the end with 16ac. I particularly liked that the clue told me specifically how to spell 10ac … although … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27726 – Saturday, 25 July 2020. Intimations of immor(t)ality?”

There was much here beyond my ken, but only 12dn eluded me completely. The rest was a medium difficulty solve, with some delightful touches from the likes of the batsman at 9ac and the boozer … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27720 – Saturday, 18 July 2020. Generous rewards for general knowledge.”

… and I too flew through this one, until I reached my LOI, 4dn, which took a bit of an alphabet hunt. I won’t be surprised to see reports of fast times, but everything was … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27714 – Saturday, 11 July 2020. All porkers watered and ready …”

Typical Saturday fare. Unusually rich in homophones, I thought, and in quaint double definitions (dd). No references as far as I could see to the birthday party across the Atlantic. Thanks to the setter for … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27708 – Saturday, 4 July 2020 … when the crossword doing’s dandy!”

For me, this puzzle was in the Good Place. No clue I couldn’t (eventually) solve, few answers if any that could be written in and justified at first glance. There were answers beyond my vocabulary … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27702 – Saturday, 27 June 2020. The Good Place.”

This looked for a while like an opportunity for a personal best. I wrote in clue after clue … then, two-thirds of the way through, I hit the wall. How do you all go? My … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27696 – Saturday, 20 June 2020. Fast start.”