Author: Chris

Another fast start to the week – today’s time of 7:57 improving slightly on yesterday’s. All seemed fair play and entertaining as I sailed through. I’ll see if anything comes up as I dissect it … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1661 by Hurley”

At 8:04 this solve was 1 second faster than yesterday’s which was generally considered to be an easy start to the week. Lots to enjoy. With a fair smattering of question marks, I’ve been trying … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1656 by Izetti”

A zippy start to week – 6:33 yesterday and 6:54 today. This solve took on an X-rated approach starting by completing the NE then SW then up to NW and finally puzzling through the SE. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1651 by Mara”

Add a few names, a fair few abbreviations and the odd composer then mix cleverly. 9 minutes for this enjoyable QC with a mind-blank on the two longer downs – 6 and 9. All questions … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1646 by Orpheus”

9 minutes – so a little trickier than yesrterday’s but not much. A fair few anagrams, a couple of not too obvious double definitions and lost of fun deciphering the parsing. Very enjoyable – thanks … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1641 by Pedro”

Pretty rapid progress was held up by one or two gaps around the grid. My end time of just on 10 minutes shows that none of these ended up being too problematic. LOI 21dn, COD … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1636 by Tracy”

This seemed really hard at first but then the answers started rolling in and I completed in 11 minutes. An enjoyable and eventful solve with LOI 16dn, a new (or forgotten) word to me at … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1631 by Orpheus”

I struggled with the long anagrams, in fact, I struggled with almost everything around the grid. I suspect that wasn’t my finest quarter of an hour. LOI by about 2 minutes was 15dn as I … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1626 by Mara”

I saw the setter’s name and took it carefully, only to gradually realise that this was one of the milder examples of the genre. I was happy to complete in a little over 9 minutes.No … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1621 by Izetti”

I particularly enjoyed this puzzle as it seemed to be that good blend of challenge and get-ability which makes a QC. There were also many smiles along the way notably 1, 9, 15, and 16 … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1616 by Wurm”