Author: Guy du Sable

Besides the somewhat obscure word at 10 that is partly clued by an equally obscure definition, this was pretty straightforward. I know my headline is stretching the actual facts of the grid, but it’s the … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4839, 24 February 2019, by David McLean — PROTESTERS below the CONDO”

I don’t remember feeling this one was particularly hard, but I was unstressed and unpressed for time, so no momentary difficulty felt frustrating. There were plenty of chewy bits to savor, including one word that … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4837, 10 February 2019, by David McLean — No sweat!”

Fun one, not as hard as I feared, once I finally got started. I’m sure 15 was extremely easy if you happened to know what “Honister” refers to; I didn’t, but got it (eventually) anyway. … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4835, 13 January 2019, by Jeff Pearce — Huckleberry friend”

This was an engaging exercise, with some fine, quite deceptive surfaces. The four Double Definitions are not scintillating, but such rarely are (and the last one’s kind of fun), but a few of the Cryptic … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4833, 13 January 2019, by Dean Mayer — Think Twice, It’s All Right”

A gentle offering, with evenly paved surfaces slick enough to trip you up as to the cryptic parsing. I have a two or three quibbles, but no major complaint—nothing nearly so troublesome as my problems … Read more “Sunday Times 4831, 30 December 2018, by David McLean — A Saucerful of Resects”

I suddenly remembered this morning that I had to do this by tonight, and I’ve lost my copy so had to work it again, and I had no notes. But this wasn’t a hard one. … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4829, by Jeff Pearce — Fag ged about it”

I didn’t notice while working it last week, but this puzzle has a large number (13!) of enclosure clues. As usual, I went through this in no great haste, taking time to stop and savor … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic No. 4827, by Dean Mayer — Boxing Day?”

As I set this to publish, I’m just back from the Metropolitan Museum here in New York City, where I spent some time with the sensational Eugène Delacroix. Which seems appropriate, as this puzzle reacquainted … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4825, by David McLean — Four-letter word! (But is it art?)”

* My desultory research indicates that the first citation of “It’s quiet… too quiet” may be a line in the film Drums Along the Mohawk (1939). This was a moderately entertaining and not very difficult … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4823, by Jeff Pearce — It’s easy… too easy(?)*”

I enjoyed this a lot. FOI was DESPOIL, then FAIR-AND-SQUARE, and then, from only the Q and the definition, I got SESQUIPEDALIAN, and was well on my way. The only frustrating LOGJAM occurred with my … Read more “Sunday Times Cryptic 4821, by Dean Mayer — Any eyebrows raised?”