Author: Zabadak

Not my fastest ever solve in just under 31 minutes, and early results suggest it was on the tougher side. I can’t quite put my finger on why, although some of the wordplay took some … Read more “27478 Thursday, 10 October 2019 Awash with clergy”

Maybe it’s because I’m out of practice, because I’ve not been crosswording much of this past week, but I struggled through this over 45 minutes (and four seconds), hoping that it was tricky, and not … Read more “27466 Thursday, 26 September 2019 And in other nose…”

A pretty easy start with the top line going straight in flattered to deceive, and I took a hard-worked 29 minutes over this. Wordy clues needed much wrangling especially to tease out the wordplay, which … Read more “27454 Thursday, 12 September 2019 Yes, yes, yes it’s my Autumn…”

A moderate puzzle after yesterday’s eccentric offering, with fewer tricky words and definitions. I still managed to trundle off down the wrong track at a couple of places, and came home in 16.42. The mutilated … Read more “27442 Thursday, 29 August 2019 The Justice, In fair round belly”

While this continued my run this week of being in the 15/16/17 range at 17.22 it felt a lot meatier with a lot of the wordplay needing a lot of untangling. I took time to … Read more “27430 Thursday, 15 August 2019 The way the world ends”

I thought this was an absolute cracker, even though I whizzed through it in 15 and a half minutes, but I’m fully aware that those who are not fans of Rev Spooner or of interdependent … Read more “27418 Thursday, 1 August 2019 ..but his face rings a bell”

27406  Thursday, 18 July 2019 A struggle for me, midnight solving not necessarily to blame, extending to all but 32 minutes and producing an improbable but annoyingly pink error. As disclosed, I have some minor … Read more “Thursday, 18 July 2019 In which the miller’s son turns up late”

Happy 4th July to our transatlantic friends: if you happen to be anywhere near the Lincoln Memorial do try to enjoy the parade of tanks (so far I’ve spotted two), other military hardware and whatever … Read more “27394 Thursday, 4 July 2019 What Is This Thing Called, Love?”

I found this on the tough side, taking a pleasingly alliterative (anumertive?) 32.32 to complete, though Love Island was burbling in the background courtesy of Mrs Z and may hae been a disturbance to the … Read more “No 27382, Thursday, 20 June 2019 No gnu flag”

More TLS stuff in this one than some of you will be comfortable with, so I’ve added some extra high and low culture just to be even more annoying. Barely a scrap of sciency stuff … Read more “27370, Thursday, 6 June 2019 Something will turn up, not only in the down clues”