Author: Chris

Getting the long clues surrounding the grid straight off would help – I got 2 out of 4 so didn’t come up with a fast time – 11 minutes. The rest were reasonably straight forward … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1611 by Orpheus”

I got nowhere in the top half of this puzzle so dropped down and built it back up again. Finally, I was left with three clues – 4ac, 4dn and 8ac which eventually fell in … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1606 by Tracy”

I found this quite a tricky offering from Des. However, it was fair and I completed in 12 minutes, the final minute spent struggling to see how 7dn worked. Here are my workings, any questions … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1601 by Des”

I wasn’t quite on Hurley’s wavelength today, so this was a rather bitty solve. Last one in 4ac was entered at 12 minutes matching yesterday’s time. 3dn probably held me up the most as described … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1596 by Hurley”

A tough one which I only just completed thanks to some unlikely memory retrieves (1ac, 20ac, 13dn) plus a fingers crossed LOI at 10ac. 13 minutes. Beginners on the cryptic crossword road do need to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1591 by Wurm”

A quick quickie from Trelawney completed in just 5:35 – probably a PB. I didn’t get 1ac at first pass but a few checkers made it click (and I entered it with a smile). The … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1586 by Trelawney”

An excellent QC IMHO. Not just a pangram but a well judged level of clueing which kept me on my toes but still allowed me to come within my tangent 10 minutes (by 6 seconds!). … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1581 by Breadman”

A lot to enjoy in this offering from Felix – particularly the acrosses in the bottom half. Nothing proved too tricky as I was all complete except for 9ac and 1dn in about 7 minutes. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1576 by Felix”

I found the last Izetti I blogged really hard but, by contrast, this one proceeded calmly and smoothly. Each sector filled in by turn from NW, NE, SE to SW finishing with LOI 14ac on … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1571 by Izetti”

LHS filled in first with a bit of a biff fest towards the bottom. Then the rest completed a little more slowly, but still steadily, leaving me with a time happily within target (for a … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1566 by Joker”