Author: Chris

Rather chewier than usual – I felt lucky to come in at 15 minutes (which often means everyone else will have breezed through this in record times). Consistently good surfaces made this a pleasure – … Read more “Quick Crytpic 671 by Hurley”

666 may be ‘the devil’s number’ but this was 13 minutes of entertainment from Joker. With a mix of easy-in and harder clues, my COD goes to 11ac for the definition. I have a bit … Read more “Quick Cryptic 666 by Joker”

Too busy, really, to blog today so a) I was late and b) I ended up rushing. I therefore found this pretty hard in places leading to 13 minutes. I rather messed up 1ac on … Read more “Quick Cryptic 661 by Tracy”

10 minutes to solve the crossword then and a lot more to follow up the various interesting leads into the English language. Highly enjoyable with nothing too difficult – thanks Orpheus. ACROSS 1. Cathedral – … Read more “Quick Cryptic 656 by Orpheus”

Izetti dishes up a clever puzzle today with a couple of twists on ‘usual’ devices which I suspect may be throughly enjoyed by the more seasoned hands but may prove problematic to the less experienced. … Read more “Quick Cryptic 651 by Izetti”

A quicker solve of the long anagram at 1ac would have helped considerably. As it was I took 16 minutes being misdirected by the many clever clues and some padding to others. So, whilst fun, … Read more “Quick Crytpic 646 by Flamande”

What an excellent QUICK cryptic. It was quick – 7.47 which may be a record but also full of humour. Several stand out – my favourites being 10dn and 21ac.Thanks for a great start to … Read more “Quick Cryptic 641 by Felix”

I seem to have had many hard QCs to blog of late so it was refreshing when this one seemed simple – but then 9ac and 10ac had me in knots. 12 minutes in the … Read more “QC 636 by Grumpy”

14 minutes for me for what seemed a good QC level. Plenty to work out (a few put-this-inside-that clues) plus a couple of good old fashioned terms but nothing too devious. Thanks, Tracy. ACROSS 8. … Read more “Quick Cryptic 631 by Tracy”

I seem to be on Orpheus watch – having had the pleasure of blogging one last week. There’s a lot of cleverness here as well. Look out for lots of abbreviations and a flock of … Read more “Quick Cryptic 626 by Orpheus”