Solving time 8:00 One or two clues here could have people struggling. Across 1 HEAD,STREAM – tempted by MAINSTREAM, with “current school” as iffy def, but M??? for 1D looked unpromising so the “main” bit … Read more “23,471 – a few tricky bits”
Author: petebiddlecombe
23,465 – hurrying too much? / Puzzle difficulty
Solving time: 5:08 This could, and probably should, have been a sub-5 time, but I was delayed by first writing AMEND at 4, and by initially guessing SA(LIE)NT at 25, with part of the wordplay … Read more “23,465 – hurrying too much? / Puzzle difficulty”
Jumbo 669 – religion and deletions / One month in …
Solving time: 18:55 A good selection of answers here, and some interesting clues. Quite a bit of religion – a creed, baptism, apostle, heretic, and Vishnu and his equivalent of nectar too. Also some interesting … Read more “Jumbo 669 – religion and deletions / One month in …”
23,459 – the fifth qualifier
Solving time – 9:42 This was the last of the qualifying puzzles for the Times Crossword Championship. It was on their crossword club website so I solved it then, and wrote these notes from a … Read more “23,459 – the fifth qualifier”
Mephisto 2412, weekend round-up
Posting a bit early, but I don’t think anyone’s sad enough to pinch these answers and then go to a PO with an 11 p.m. collection … We’re back round to Chris Feetenby again. I … Read more “Mephisto 2412, weekend round-up”
23,453 – Six games all …
Solving time 11:13 In some haste as doing the other blog today too … This was a tie-breaker puzzle held in readiness at the Times Championship in case two people’s (all-correct) hands went up simultaneously … Read more “23,453 – Six games all …”
Mephisto 2411 – Tim Moorey
Solving time: call it 80 minutes Got myself in a real mess with this with a careless entry of ATTAP at 2D, followed by consequent agony trying to find ST?KO at 11 and UP?? at … Read more “Mephisto 2411 – Tim Moorey”
Jumbo 667 – cheeky setter rides again?
Just remembered this was waiting to be posted … Solving time 15:55 A fairly easy jumbo, this one. I don’t have as much data about Jumbo times as for the daily cryptic, but the 10 … Read more “Jumbo 667 – cheeky setter rides again?”
23,447 – Not a giveaway / Shameless advertising
Solving time 12:28 + a tad for previous knowledge This was the first puzzle in preliminary session B of the championship, and it was solved by 53 per cent of the competitors. After some daft … Read more “23,447 – Not a giveaway / Shameless advertising”
Mephisto 2410 – Mike Laws, weekend round-up
Solving time 41:20 – Chambers used after about 10 minutes. After implying last week that Mephisto was easier than Azed, it was probably inevitable that this week’s puzzle would take over twice as long as … Read more “Mephisto 2410 – Mike Laws, weekend round-up”