Author: Zabadak

I’m not currently solving at top speed, and this certainly chewed up a good 30 minutes, not helped by offering a (valid?) alternative at 1 across which created a need at 2 down for a … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27118 Thursday, 16 August 2018 “It’s not bragging if you can back it up.””

By dint of (almost) skipping typo watch, I scrambled in just one second under 30 minutes, but I’m not sure why I made (for me) rather heavy weather of this one. For the most part, … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27106 Thursday, 2 August 2018 The multitudinous seas incarnadine”

A gentle stroll for a par score of 17.30, skilfully avoiding several spelling disasters and gritting my teeth over one hyphenated word that should have been strangled at birth. Maybe it’s not too late.  There … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27094, Thursday, 19 July 2018 Amazon (dis)grace, how is this found?”

A  likeable puzzle with plenty of wit, and only one word (at 18) which I had to pretend I knew before looking it up post solve. I’ve had to work extra time on some clues, … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27082 Thursday, 5 July 2018 THBPBPTHPT! (but I liked it)”

I thought this was pretty straightforward fare, which I completed in my pretty straightforward fare par time of 17 minutes. Sharp eyed students among you will notice this is my third outing in as many … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27070 Thursday, 21 June 2018 Made in South Caroline”

I don’t think I really want to admit how long this took*, but it was simply ages. A partial excuse is that the execrable Love Island was playing in the background (don’t ask). But I … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27064 Thursday, 14 June 2018 La Viande Rose”

I somewhat laboured over this for 24 minutes, which might have had to do with the lateness/earliness of the hour but I liked it rather a lot. Two of the clues, 12 and 14, only … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27058, Thursday, 7 June 2018 Not, thankfully, fubar.”

With 1 across securely in place, I was of course strongly tempted to write up the entire blog in the style of a cocktail recipe book, which I think would be possible but might well … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27046 Thursday, 24 May 2018 Mixed blessings (mine’s a G&T)”

Yesterdays was a cracking example of a puzzle in which the difficulty was created not by the arcane vocabulary but by the devilry and misdirection of the cluing. Today’s cluing is a lot more straightforward, … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27022 26th April 2018. Out of Date, Out of Mind?”

My Polish mother-in-law was considering the relative merits of dogs and, so the possibly apocryphal story goes, couldn’t decide between a Coolie and a Damnation. I’d like to think that the memory of that tale … Read more “Times Cryptic No 27010, Thursday, 12 April 2018: Murder in the fourth degree”