Author: Chris

A quick QC today – 5 minutes for all bar 13ac and LOI 21ac. 6:13 to complete the grid. I enjoyed some interesting anagram indicators and wondered about the hidden indicator at 24ac. COD 4dn. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1861 by Joker”

Quite a tough work out from Breadman today which took 11 minutes. I found the word play quite tricky in parts (e.g. 13dn), had trouble with the font at 21ac and needed all the checkers … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1856 by Breadman”

I found this quite tricky and finished just outside target of 10 minutes. There’s a rash of double definitions and anagrams to enjoy. Definitions are underlined. Across 1 Hit second vehicle (6) STRUCK – second … Read more “Times Quick Ctyptic 1851 by Joker”

An old school Izetti full of cunning, deviousness, unusual terms, double definitions, cleverness, marvellous surfaces and long answers – in short, I’d rate this as hard (I took just over 15 minutes). Old hands will, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1846 by Izetti”

What a difference a week makes – the weather, the vaccination rate, the relative freedoms and a really Q C. 2 seconds under 6 minutes for this one to fly by more or less top … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1841 by Breadman”

No name as yet for the setter so I can’t congratulate them on beating me all ends up [on edit – thanks to jackkt for news from the tree-ware version of the setter’s name]. Was … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1836 by Tracy”

No time to declare as I was interrupted but I think this will prove to be on the harder side. There’s the odd philosopher and Dickensian character to deal with as well as some tricky-ish … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1831 by Orpheus”

FOI 5ac and then headed south and worked clockwise round the grid. I made startlingly good time for what felt like a tricky puzzle – having completed all but 17ac in less than 7 minutes. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1826 by Teazel”

A pangram and a tricky grid layout (not many crossers for first letters) from Breadman today. It felt like hard work at the time but the pace kept up, so the cluing must have been … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1821 by Breadman”

You wait for a solve exactly 9 seconds over taget and two come along in a few weeks. Some of this was spent mulling over 12ac  – let me know if I’m missing something here. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1816 by Joker”