Author: piquet

I whipped through this in 20 minutes, parsing some afterwards, coming to a halt with just 9d to finish. Playing around with the seven unchecked letters of the anagram yielded a possible or likely answer … Read more “Times 27531 – Being furious in Florida”

A feast of word insertion and assembly clues making this one a bit repetitive I thought, pleasant enough but not remarkable. In fact I’m struggling to find remarks to make about it. A MER at … Read more “Times 27525 – No shuttlecocks required for this.”

Highly amusing puzzle today, with some tricky post-biff parsing for your blogger once the grid was completed in about half an hour. Compliments to the setter, please give me one of these every Wednesday!Special mentions … Read more “Times 27519 – cor blimey it’s the vernal and the vernacular.”

Plenty of plant and animal life in this amusing but gentle puzzle today, with a couple of more obscure trees or flowers guessable if you didn’t know them. I was a bit surprised to see … Read more “Times 27513 – botanical, ornithological, and what Daddy wouldn’t buy me.”

I found this fairly easy going, starting with 1a and 1d, always a good plan if they spring to mind quickly. A mild ER followed at the definition of 1a, I thought it was closer … Read more “Times 27507 – not ‘1 across’d for too long”

I found this an unusual crossword, something of a curate’s egg. Starting with 1a and 1d then 8a with no hesitation, I thought it was going to be a doddle. Then the waters became choppier … Read more “Times 27501 – enough already.”

Once again, after a reasonably challenging Monday this week, I find Wednesday is more in a Monday vein. I worked steadily through the clues with no hold-ups and not even a mild ER. 20 minutes … Read more “Times 27495 – when the railways were fast (they still are in France).”

Well, I thought Monday’s was tough, at least the left side of it, but this one was closer to one I’d expect for a Monday. If it has a theme, it’s a Tour de l’Europe, … Read more “Times 27489 – a European journey”

I thought this was an elegant puzzle, the best on Wednesday for a while, not difficult but with some clever, smooth surfaces and no MERs for me. I went astray at first with 15a and … Read more “Times 27483 – crosswordy swimming practice”

An enjoyable 21 minutes without rushing, 3d being the only obscure answer which I did vaguely know but had to dredge from the grey depths. I’m usually floored by Scottish dialect words but both of … Read more “Times 27477 – nothing to be afraid of, or 7d.”