Author: branch

After suggestions during the previous week that week-day puzzles were tending to become easier, this number has certainly proved that Saturdays don’t have that problem, for me at least! Perhaps an early sign of the … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27096 – Saturday, 21 July 2018. Oh I do like to be beside the seaside.”

Like last week, this was a slow solve. Again around 50 minutes for me. This one had rather more obscurities, but everything was gettable on a pleasant Saturday. (For vinyl1’s benefit, I’ve recently seen Beautiful, … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27090 – Saturday, 14 July 2018. Another Pleasant Valley Saturday.”

This took me longer than usual: about 50 minutes. I don’t think it was too hard. Just a well-clued Saturday puzzle. My LOI was 1ac, which took me ages to see, so I’ll call it … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27084 – Saturday, 07 July 2018. Too much football is barely enough?”

I started quickly on this one and after about 30 minutes had done all bar two. 3dn was just a blind spot for me, but 4dn is definitely my clue of the day. A very … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27078 – Saturday, 30 June 2018. Don’t raise my hopes.”

Another typically challenging Saturday puzzle, I thought. I had to do it in bits and pieces because I was otherwise engaged all that day, so I don’t have a time, but it rates as another … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27072 – Saturday, 23 June 2018. Thar she blows!”

This took me just over 17 minutes – a new PB, I’m sure, even though I still had several clues to parse for this blog. In fact the blog caused me to reconsider 17ac, so … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27066 – Saturday, 16 June 2018. Fast but unsure.”

I am blogging this in beautiful Goa, India. A wonderful place, but since the monsoon arrived yesterday what else to do but crosswords? This was a challenging puzzle, but never impossible. My time was probably … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27060 – Saturday, 09 June 2018. Beautiful one day, monsoon the next.”

No flora or fauna – how excellent! Strangely I knew the rock at 10ac, no doubt from crosswords. This was a steady solve until I got down to four or five missing in the top … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27054 – Saturday, 02 June 2018. Meaningful spelling reform needed?”

I struggled with this one, but I suspect more because of household stresses than its intrinsic difficulty. In retrospect it looks like a typical Saturday puzzle. My last ones in were the four clues around … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27048 – Saturday, 26 May 2018. Easy for some?”

This was a quick solve – done on paper in about 20 minutes. Despite that, all the clues felt suitably challenging. A number of clues exposed knowledge or vocabulary gaps without slowing me down unduly. … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27042 – Saturday, 19 May 2018. Woman’s Work.”