Author: Chris

Tracy – thanks – this was great fun. If you like anagrams then you’ve come to the right place. A couple of longish ones pushed my time up to 18 minutes – I ended up … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 162 by Tracy”

This is a top notch offering which travels around the northern hemisphere, has some witty clues (I’ve selected 2 COD – clues of the day) and has the reappearance of a sweet which appeared in … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 157 by Orpheus”

Another enjoyable workout (in 10 minutes). The maze-maker and retreat may be unfamiliar to some but one joy of cryptic crosswords is working out an answer you may not have heard of and learning something … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 152 by Izetti”

A very fine crossword, in my opinion. Clever clues where the word play has relevance to the definition and the occasional mental gymnastics needed for some word play.Some went in really quickly and some – … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 147 by Tracy”

This will, I think, appeal to the more seasoned Quick solvers as there are some tricky clues with harder to spot than usual definitions – unless, of course, I’m just having an off day. I’ll … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 142 by Felix”

I found this a very pleasant, accessible puzzle when I wandered through it in 9 minutes. As usual when I blog the word play I find bits and bobs which may cause problems to newcomers … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 137 by Flamande”

Found this pretty hard. No time for solving as done over a day walking in the Peak District with family. Wonderful views from Mam Tor. A few clues had quite convoluted word play which, once … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 132 by Hurley”

If, like me, you find this more of a flapjack than the definition of 17dn – it may help to know that in some cases the definitions are quite get-able but the word play is … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 127 by Vista”

The first couple seemed easy but then I took what seemed an age to get into the rest. Finished in 12 minutes so must have sped up as I went. An enjoyable crossword which starts … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 117 by Joker”

This may be a tale of two types of solvers – those who get 1ac early and those who don’t. I was in the latter category, took 25 minutes and think this is pretty hard … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 112 by Izetti”