Author: Penfold

This was tricky in parts with a few unfamiliar words and some challenging wordplay.  I spent around 50 minutes in all, putting it on the harder side of average

I thought this was an excellent puzzle, full of invention and wit and plenty of the sort of clever definitions that set Times cryptics apart from other puzzles…

I found this fairly easy, solving Jimbo-style top to bottom, left to right…

A perfectly acceptable puzzle of mid-level difficulty, IMHO.  A couple of chestnuts balanced with a lot of neat touches, but a bit of controversy arpund 28a.

This was a toughie but goodie. I was diverted for well over an hour solving and parsing everything.

I’d put this on the harder side of average, taking 50 minutes to sort everything out.  There were a few quiblettes / minor eyebrow raisers but nothing too heinous.

It only took 30 minutes to complete this jumbo, putting it firmly at the easier end of the spectrtum for me at least, but I found it most enjoyable thanks to some excellent clueing.

I found this pretty easy, knocking it off in around 35 minutes with everything parsed.  What about you?

This was certainly on the tougher side, for me at least.  I made reasonable progress on most of it but the last dozen or so clues, mostly in the bottom half of the grid, took my total time past the hour.

Another gentler Jumbo offering this week, keeping me busy for no more than 40 minutes including working out all the parsings.