Author: petebiddlecombe

Solving time 7:45, but one wrong answer. Calming down from my irritation with myself, there’s some good stuff here, with interesting steps like “unfortunate lot of chickens” => FOWL PEST. Beginner’s notebook entries: O.R. = … Read more “23,506 – A mistake made stupIDLY”

Solving time 6:44 I enjoyed this puzzle, although there were a couple of clues I didn’t fully understand until writing up these notes. Left side was fairly empty until a lucky quick bit of anagram-spotting … Read more “23,500 – time to sort out a couple of points”

Solving time 6:19 One or two North country words, so I idly wonder whether this is from a “north of Watford Gap” setter. And some well-disguised clues such as 17A for constructions I must have … Read more “23,494 – from the North or the classical Med?”

Solving time 13:33 I found this an entertaining but quite difficult puzzle, with some of that “tough puzzle makes easy clues harder than they should be” effect that one or two others have mentioned. I … Read more “23488 – not a 12 in the park”

Solving time 9:11 In total, 14 letters of the alphabet appeared at least twice in the same answer somewhere in this puzzle. I suspect a doubled-letter pangram is impossible, but occasionally setters seem to try … Read more “23,482 – Seeing double??”

Solving time 7:15 A fairly good time for this, but there was lots of “instinctive solving” going on, with plenty of def-guessing and a few lucky spottings of probable wordplay material that helped. I got … Read more “23,477 – one for old hands?”