Author: Zabadak

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 Out of Date, Out of Mind?”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”

My experience this week is that the crosswords have been getting steadily easier, with this one requiring 15’ 15”. However, I am very aware that there are entries here that may not be in everyone’s … Read more “Times Cryptic No 26998 Thursday, 29 March 2018 Forget Oxfam, feed Twiggy”

The leader board would suggest that this was not as tough as I made it in my 28 minutes of struggle, and I can’t really claim that I took it steady so as to parse … Read more “Times Cryptic No 26986 Thursday, 15 March 2018 Careless Rapture. Bravo!”

I think I might preface my remarks by suggesting a game of guess who. In at least four rows of the grid there are, in the two answers combined, what appear to be hints to … Read more “Times Cryptic No 26974, Thursday, 1 March 2018 He shoots, he scores again and again!”