Author: piquet

After nine weeks of leisurely blogging of the Championship puzzles, today we were back to the usual routine of “make the tea, print off the puzzle, hope you can solve it for a timely blog”. … Read more “Times 26301 – normal service resumed”

In my view this was the hardest of the three puzzles in the Grand Final; it took me over an hour, so I’d have been sitting chewing my pencil long after you speedy solvers had … Read more “Times Championship 2015: Grand Final, puzzle two (Times 26295)”

After last week’s black run, this one I found more like a red, mostly straightforward with a few tricky moguls in the SW corner. The parsing of 22a was not clear to me until jerrywh … Read more “Times Championship 2015: Grand Final, puzzle three (Times 26289)”

Having survived the six qualifiers, blog-wise, I was preparing myself to face steeper slopes with the Final Three. However I found this one no trickier than the two toughest of the preliminary puzzles (the crampons … Read more “Championship 2015, Grand Final, puzzle one.”

For me, the most enjoyable but hardest of the three in this set, 25 minutes, although hopefully I have it correct; no repeat of last week’s embarrassing NIT NOT NUT nonsense. (How’s that for alliterative … Read more “Times Championship 2015: Prelim Two, puzzle three.”

This one seemed the easiest of the three in the set, took me just under 15 minutes and had no words I needed to check afterwards. I’d never heard of 27a but it was clear … Read more “Championship 2015, Preliminary Two, Puzzle two – nothing scary”

Possibly because I was trying to do all three of this set of Qualifying puzzles in pseudo-exam conditions within a timeframe, I found this a bit of a slog; not especially difficult but with plenty … Read more “Championship 2015, Preliminary Two, Puzzle one – cogito, cogito…”

I noted Jimbo’s comment last week about the need these days for coffee and domestic perambulation to aid his little grey cells; were I to find myself in the Exam Room next year, would I … Read more “Times Championship 2015: Prelim one, puzzle three … learn your antelopes!”

Thus far, I am on target to survive the prelims (had I been in London to enter and not been fazed by the presence of 88 other hopefuls and Magoo, all eyes-down). This one seemed … Read more “Championship 2015, Preliminary One, Puzzle two: don’t panic yet.”