Author: piquet

I enjoyed this a lot; it wasn’t a particularly tough test I thought, but amongst the nomal insert-this-into-that and delete-that-from-this clues we had some less obvious wordplay. For example, 7d, 18d, 24d. I especially liked … Read more “Times 27891 – what was the largest city in the world, until 612 BC?”

An enjoyable puzzle, free from obscure plants, antelopes and poets; it took me about the usual 20 minutes. That was excluding my time to wander off piste and remember Galsworthy’s epic televised, and do some … Read more “Times 27885 – add time to reminisce.”

A pleasant twenty minutes for this offering, nothing too contentious. I liked 4d, once I’d got past thinking about Ezra, and liked 6a, as a word; we have owned a few.No politics allowed, but I … Read more “Times 27879 – not the battle of Θερμοπύλες, but into power, stations.”

One of those puzzles which has loads of straightforward clues and a few really tricky ones, with a couple of obscurities at 13d and 16d. I fell into a bear trap at 26a, but climbed … Read more “Times 27873 – light and dark, hard and soft.”

January 6th. One of the few days so far on my 2021 calendar where something happens. Calor Gas deliver, Majestic Wine deliver, and Americans have just been to the polls in Georgia again. I have … Read more “Times 27867 – Georgia on my mind.”

I know it’s not cricket to blog that something was easy, or easier than another thing, pour pas les autres décourager, but I was surprised to find myself writing in answers as fast as I … Read more “Times 27861 – woke and awake”

After last week’s toughie, the last of the three competition puzzles which weren’t, we’re back to a lower level of difficulty with this one. Quite a lot of convoluted wordplay there if you can be … Read more “Times 27855 – back to Tier One.”

Olivia (for one) can confirm or otherwise that this was the third of the “didn’t happen” TCC puzzles last month, as she managed to download it before it vanished from the website. If it is, … Read more “Times 27849 – three strikes and I’m out”

In the time it probably took Verlaine to finish this, I had read all the clues and put in only a couple in the lower half. Then suddenly I saw more and quickly completed almost … Read more “Times 27843 – something of a quickstep.”

Rumour has it that this puzzle is one of three we were supposed to be served the weekend before last for the online TCC which failed to happen; the serial number (47518) being not in … Read more “Times 27837 – local knowledge optional”