Author: Zabadak

  A gentle 19 minute stroll around the grid, with  the last two at 22 and 25 adding considerably to my time as I rather ran out of steam. For those of you that don’t … Read more “Times 28342 Come up and see me sometime”

  I got through this in 12 seconds inside 20 minutes, though not without hesitations on the way over some quirky definitions and unusual anagram indicators. There is vocab that may be unfamiliar to some … Read more “Times 28330 Turns out I can do.”

  Not a quick solve by my standards at 25.20, and I seemed to rove over various discrete bits of the puzzle without any methodical joining. One clue, 6d, defied proper resolution during the session, … Read more “Times 28318 I be free to go abroad”

  Not, from my point of view, a particularly taxing puzzle, completed in 13 minutes, but pleasant enough. There are some exotic words, in Hebrew, French and herbal English, and a name which some of … Read more “Times 28306 Everything you wanted to know….”

“That may be, but we came down it though, didn’t we, Charlie? And in the African Queen”. Rather a gentle puzzle I thought, free from treacherous rapids and sticky muddy bits.

I can’t say I found this particularly difficult, and after trying to fill in the missing letters from M_R_H_S_A_ for a short eternity, finally completed in 15.37

An avoidable typo spoiled my taking possession of the early head of the leaderboard, but I’ll still say I got through this in 13.34, and would have been quicker if I hadn’t diligently and carefully … Read more “28270 Thursday, 21 April 2022 Hi ho, Silver!”

Lots to like about this one, keeping me going for 22 minutes and some. The Irish port town might not be familiar to everyone, but at least we are spared the Irish version, which is … Read more “28258 Thursday, 7 April 2022 I’m reviewing the situation”

I was through this in 21.25 with everything tidied away: as often seems to be the case these days almost bang on the current average time. By no means a straight through solve though, as … Read more “28246 Thursday, 24 March 2022 Simples?”

My usual blog night slightly slower pace saw nearly 26 minutes pass working out the wrinkles in this one. Some of the wordplay does indeed require more than the seasoned solvers’ knowing glance, and I … Read more “28234 Thursday, 10 March 2022 The chocolates with the less fattening centre”