Author: Zabadak

I thought I was on for a fast time and another Thursday easy, but while the perimeter clues went in smoothly enough, the internal ones, particularly the four longest ones, proved highly resistant. Add two … Read more “25787: An exercise that dampened expectations of a quick finish”

Less than 10 minutes for this one, so look out for some whizzo times, and then have a go at the Quickie for something a bit more challenging. Well, I say ten minutes. It was … Read more “25775 A very peculiar practice”

And just who is Roy Maer (line 6)? My time for sorting all the letters (it is a pangram this time, I’ve checked and checked!) was 24′ 47″, with determined knocking off of the wordplay on … Read more “25763 Take your bag of Scrabble™ letters, throw them into the air and see how they land.”

Last time I was here in the hot seat, Rev John Galbraith Graham, of blessed memory, appeared under his pen-name in a crossword that mirrored, to a degree, his looser and affable style, And lo! … Read more “Times Cryptic 25751 Mystifying for Apes or a distinct feeling of déjà vu.”

Was there perhaps a hint of a more relaxed style of setting here? A touch of the not-quite-Ximenean? There is certainly one laugh out loud clue and a couple where the definitions are hardly precise. … Read more “Times Cryptic 25739 Bright Maharajah, long producing problems for his guardian? (4,9,6)”

A rather exciting sub-10 for me, and even then I wasn’t the first on the board having started at midnight local time. I’d like to suggest there’s a bit of an outdoor party theme trying … Read more “Vanilla? Chewy toffee? Tutti Frutti? Neither, but a pleasant enough picnic. Times 25727”

Stopped the clock after a smidge over 20 minutes. Probably should have been quicker, but decided still to do this on the night shift after a long day pottering around northern France with my 10 … Read more “Times crossword 25715: All you have to do is get all the letters in the right order”

This one turned out to be a ten minute romp, which allowing for my clumsy and inattentive typing techniques is about as fast as I can go. A couple of words were not that familiar … Read more “25703 They don’t come much easier”

14′ 41″, which turned out to be just under 2 Gilhams, but then I was taking it steady and trying to make sure everything made sense. No artists, no cricket, no poets, no painters despite … Read more “25691 Delightful from top to bottom”

I managed 23′ 31″ and had to check to confirm that the unlikely collection of letters that I had battered 9 down into was indeed a recognised piece of vocabulary. Not much in this one … Read more “25679 Many paths in my garden – lead me down any number of them.”