Author: jackkt

I completed most of this within 25 minutes but then became bogged down in the remaining 8 clues in the lower half with 13dn, a word I’ve never heard of, as the main sticking point. … Read more “Times 25202 – Fairy Tales and Army Slang”

Time taken to solve: 37 minutes. A very enjoyable and lively puzzle where only one clue (9ac) presented any problems solving and I’m not sure that it was quite fair because the cryptic way into … Read more “Times 25190”

Time taken to solve: Completely off the scale. I finished the RH apart from the unforgivable 22dn in about 15 minutes and thought I was in for an easy ride but I found the SW … Read more “Times 25178 – Trooble at t’mill”

Off to a flying start but I had problems getting the answers flowing and finished eventually in 39 minutes which was disappointing because on writing the blog it became apparent how very easy most of … Read more “Times 25166 – Two by Two”

30 minutes for this one which came as something of a relief after the past couple of days when things started well but went downhill rapidly. I found it enjoyable if not particularly taxing and … Read more “25154 – Shiver me timbers!”

Dave is unavailable to blog this Friday so I am standing in. I finished most of this comfortably within 30 minutes but then got stuck in the SE corner with 11ac still missing and these … Read more “Times 25136 – Another sting in the tail…”

I had a struggle with this one and took an hour give or take 5 minutes not for the first time this week. Some of the clues that held me up for longest (4ac for … Read more “Times 25130 – In it for the long haul…”

This one took me 45 minutes with time lost mainly in the early stages where blogger’s nerves took their usual toll. Whilst solving I thought there seemed to be rather a lot of American stuff … Read more “Times 25118 – Americana”

Goodness me, this one gave me some problems and took me over an hour for the third consecutive day this week. Right at the outset I fell literally into a bear-trap (probably of my own … Read more “Times – 25106 – Bewitched, bothered and (just a bit) jaded…”

This one took me 45 minutes but I had some problems finishing off – as usual. A couple of really good clues (10ac and 21ac) made up for the odd duffer e.g.19 where you probably … Read more “25094 – Coochy-coo!”