Author: branch

A puzzle with middle of the road difficulty, but much to enjoy, including three nice homophones. Some nice hints of fate and eternity at 9ac and 3dn, but my favourite was 24ac which made me … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27768 – Saturday, 12 September 2020. Que sera, sera.”

This was a smooth solve, with quite a few cluing devices that will be familiar to experienced solvers but may challenge newer hands. I am always amused by the use of “Oxford” in the style … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27762 – Saturday, 5 September 2020. Put a sock in it!”

In spite of the setter’s self-deprecation in 5ac and 10ac, this was a very entertaining puzzle. The five double definitions really stood out. At first sight, I thought a couple of other clues were DDs … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27756 – Saturday, 29 August 2020. Never a dull clue.”

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 …”