Author: piquet

Nothing here to cause equine panic, I feel; 14 minutes for this pleasant but straightforward challenge, with a few more to reflect on the parsing of 9a and 25a. I knew the word for 1a … Read more “Times 26361 – not an antelope”

With 1a, 1d, 12a and 13d flying in, I thought this was going to be a walk in the park, but in the end it was more of a crawl through the undergrowth. There was … Read more “Times 26355 – unpredicted outcome, unfeasible idea, all of the above”

Apologies for the slightly late blog. A gentle 25 minutes to solve and parse this offering, with concentration hampered by the cleaning lady vacuuming around me (not on her usual day this week). Then the … Read more “Times 26349 – a curate’s egg”

Faced with this, bleary-eyed after a sleepless night coping with an ill and distressed Ted (our elderly wire-haired fox terrier), I was relieved to find I had finished this off in 20 minutes or so, … Read more “Times 26343 – cricket, golf and sex… what’s not to like?”

For once I was seriously against the clock, needing to solve and blog this for y’all to fustigate, before collecting visitors for a day being touristy. Surprise and relief, therefore, when my timer was stopped … Read more “Times 26337 – Archimedes was here, so was Aristophanes”

Another one of those puzzles, for me, which was slow to come into bud but then quickly came into full bloom. I had quite a few possibles in faint pencil, helping me to get a … Read more “Times 26331 – anyone for French cricket?”

After yesterday’s struggle I was fearing the worst, but it proved otherwise; I whizzed through this in 15 minutes (probably 3 Verlaines) with most of it write-in material. 22a and 14d required a minute or … Read more “Times 26325”

Easier and hopefully less controversial than the usual Wednesday jobbie, I thought. It took me half an hour while watching the tennis over tea and toast. It could have been faster if I wasn’t multi-tasking. … Read more “Times 26319”

This puzzle has a rather different flavour I feel, with several answers gettable from wordplay or a vague “I think I’ve heard ‘of…”, but requiring some real GK to be sure. It took me about … Read more “Times 26313 – an educational diversion”

Having finished it, I think this is another fine puzzle on a par with the last two days; perhaps They have indeed noted keriothe’s graph (v. 26302) and decided to shake us up a bit. … Read more “Times 26307 – Hung for too long”