Solving time 16:57 Had all but four solved in about 10 minutes and then a mighty struggle. Those four were in the SW corner that troubled many – 20/23/21/19. I didn’t understand cannabis commonly = … Read more “23,997”
Author: petebiddlecombe
Mephisto 2502
Solving time: about 80 mins, with Chambers used after about half the grid was complete Starters seemed to be mostly Acrosses – 11, 13, 14, 15, 19, 21, 22, 23, 28, 29, 32 – only … Read more “Mephisto 2502”
23991
Solving time 15:12 Made pretty good progress with most of this, but was left with about three answers or pairs of answers, with 21/30 th last to fall. With TIFFIN, Indie, BLUEBOTTLE, CARDIFF, CHELSEA, shut-eye, … Read more “23991”
23,985
Solving time 13:47 Not too bad a time for this, though the NE corner felt rather slow – 6,8,10,12,18 in particular. Across 1 Algernon SWIN(BURN)E 6 MICAH – (1,C) in Ham rev. 9 SEAL OFF … Read more “23,985”
Mephisto 2498 – Tim Moorey
Solving time: hours! This was one of the hardest Mephistos I can remember. A session of about 43 minutes without Chambers got about two-thirds of it done, but the rest was really tough and Chambers … Read more “Mephisto 2498 – Tim Moorey”
Jumbo 765 – mixed bag
Solving time 17:37 This puzzle was mostly easy but had quite few tricky words to keep you thnking. This is one of those annoying times when I think “who was doing the jumbo report due … Read more “Jumbo 765 – mixed bag”
23,966
23966 Solving time 21:19 Got quite badly stuck after 7 mins or so with about half this puzzle left to do, but kept on chipping away. The last two groups to succumb were 10/3/5 and … Read more “23,966”
23961
Solving time 9:46 I made steady progress with this one until I had 5, 24 and 3 left to deal with. At 24 I’d missed the old ‘de-creased’ trick – nearly as old as distressed … Read more “23961”
Mephisto 2496 – Paul McKenna
Solving time: about 40 minutes in two sessions, no books. I solved this one yesterday after finding that the expected blogger was too busy and seeing that … “Jeff”, the setter of the same day’s … Read more “Mephisto 2496 – Paul McKenna”
Another of those nifty books
Just bought and added to the list of books that I set up under the “tips&tricks” tag – ones that are entertaining and teach you some of those odd words that come up. Nature: Johnson … Read more “Another of those nifty books”