Author: Penfold

I found parts of this quite tricky.  Definitely a two pipe problem, especially towards the bottom where I had to apply my sleuthing skills diligently.

Hello one and all.  This is my first blog on the new site and because of the timing of these things I’m the only blogger who didn’t get the chance to do a parallel run while this site was in development and the old site was still going.  So this could all go horribly wrong

I thought this was mostly straightforward, especially for a bank holiday, with most of the unusual words very fairly clued.  I got a little bogged down in the SE corner where the long clues that … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1551 – call for the RFDS or an ambo”

This was a relatively straightforward Jumbo, but a NHO plant, a “foreign” sporting term and a couple of bits of head-scratching wordplay kept me on my toesies. First in was KEY RING and last, because … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1546 – Daisy, Daisy give me two GTs and two PMs”

One for wordplay fans this with only one CD and nary a DD, unless I’ve miscounted.  There’s some neat stuff too.  Not too easy, not too hard. First in was SAFFRON WALDEN and last was … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1541 – Was he only a drunken f**t on his birthday, and can he do the fandango?”

Me again already.  The bank holiday Jumbos squeeze the schedule and our customary 5 week “rest” gets condensed to 3 weeks.  Oh woe is we bloggers on our zero-hour, zero-money contracts.  I solved this with … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1536 – Two legs bad, no legs…?”

Happy new year.  All the best for 2022 to both my readers.  Another 60-minute puzzle, solved and parsed over two sessions during yuletide so I wasn’t in full-on speed mode or stimulant-free.  Slightly harder than … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1531 – Lillie Langtry and Jason Robards in The Twirling Inferno”

Pretty much a 60-minute puzzle so arguably a bit harder than average for a jumbo.  There were several clues of a particular type I’ve struggled to categorise which are neither nowt nor summat as they … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1526 – Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?”

I did this puzzle across a few sessions, probably just over an hour in all.  It was easier during the sessions when I hadn’t had a drink than during those when I had. First in … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1521 – The one with three reverse cryptics”

All being well, as this write-up magically appears on LJ, I’ll be in the land of nod in a lovely spa hotel on a Mallorcan clifftop.  So I’ll field any comments as and when I … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1516 – anyone fancy having lunch for lunch?”