Author: keriothe

18:12. Well well, what a naughty puzzle! Male strippers, randy lords, hen parties, drugs, booze, S&M, swearing… I was in need of smelling salts by the end of it. Polite drawing room conversation this ain’t! … Read more “Sunday Times 4696 by David McLean – the Private Eye drawing room?”

13:06. A reasonably gentle puzzle from Jeff this week. There were a couple of unknowns for me (GYRFALCON, WINGDING), an unusual abbreviation for a rather obscure unit of length, and one slightly questionable definition, but … Read more “Sunday Times 4694 by Jeff Pearce”

12m. An unusually gentle offering from Dean this week. No unknowns for me, and it all flowed smoothly with no major hold-ups. But we don’t need to be tortured every week and I found this … Read more “Sunday Times 4692 by Dean Mayer – a 10ac 9dn”

21:49. I felt I was making heavy weather of this, but I found it very enjoyable. Writing up the blog afterwards I couldn’t for the life of me see what I had found so hard, … Read more “Sunday Times 4690 by David McLean – all in the game, yo, all in the game”

26:52. Another fine effort from Jeff Pearce, and one that gave me a good deal of trouble. Most of it went in reasonably smoothly, but then I found myself badly stuck in the south-east corner … Read more “Sunday Times 4688 by Jeff Pearce – a sting ray in the tail”

27:44. Another tricky one from Dean, and highly enjoyable as always. He has a knack for writing clues that I at least find completely baffling until the penny drops. Bog-standard cryptic crossword setting this ain’t. … Read more “Sunday Times 4686 by Dean Mayer – lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate”

36:27. I thought this was a really first-class puzzle. Rather like Dean Mayer this setter seems to have a mind that works a little bit differently to most, so that there are always lots of … Read more “Sunday 4684 by David McLean – solve, or solve not”

20m. I got through most of this quickly but then made a bit of a hash of the last few clues. One of these (DESPICABLE) had an arguably rather loose definition, and a couple of … Read more “Sunday Times 4682 by Jeff Pearce – Despicable Lee”

33m. Unusually for a Dean Mayer puzzle I didn’t enjoy this one much at the time: I found it hard, and a bit of a slog. Looking at it now it doesn’t seem that difficult, … Read more “Sunday Times 4680 by Dean Mayer – awe and loathing”

24:12. The second outing for our new setter, and I for one found it a stiff challenge. I had a sense of engaging with a new and unfamiliar setting mind, and struggling to find the … Read more “Sunday Times 4678 by David McLean – do you think you can tell?”