Author: Merlin

When does a great clue become a chestnut? For newer solvers, the first time they come across a great cryptic, they want to cry “Bravo, Setter”, but old hands dismiss it with “Chestnut”.

I’m sure there is a typo at 7d, where “with” should be “within”. What with the backwards usage of “without”, which actually means “within”, I’m calling today St Withins Day.

A challenge from Mara which uses one word that I can’t find in the OED or Collins. My time 14:28.

Oink is our setter today with a well-balanced puzzle, about medium level of difficulty as I see it. 

My first blog, I took some notes on paper, hence don’t have a time, but maybe 19 mins. A few tricky misdirects from Orpheus slowed me down.