Author: plusjeremy

DNF. Most of this puzzle was easy, but to finish it required a bunch of UK-specific knowledge. In the end, two clues in the upper-right corner undid me. I solved this puzzle in the throes of Covid, but I don’t blame the virus for my poor performance!

11:58, reflecting a gentler offering which was much appreciated after both the heat wave this week, as well the difficulty of my last several blog puzzles. I enjoyed this greatly: excellent clues through and through! Though now that I’ve had my rest, I feel ready for a challenge again!

100 minutes for this very hard puzzle! Sunburnt and tired from a day at the beach (it was Independence Day here in the US), I pushed myself to finish this puzzle far beyond what seemed reasonable.

DNF, consisting of 13 minutes to solve all but one clue, and then 15+ more minutes to not solve that clue.

DNF is an understatement.

32:09. Well it is a British puzzle, after all! Needed to take my time with several particularly UK-centric answers, which led to a slower solve. But a great puzzle overall, I thought, for a Friday. Some of these clues are among the finest I’ve seen.

DNF (but close to 90 minutes). I have few words that can express the experience of having wrestled with this puzzle. I found this very, very difficult, barely putting in a single answer in 25 minutes. Perhaps I was just off the wavelength, but I think not. I can’t fathom how the setter was able to hide their meaning so cleverly.

30:32, a time which includes a short nap. Let me make clear that the nap in no way reflects the quality of the puzzle: I found this to be a nice challenge, a tasteful mix of easier and more difficult clues.

35:27. Distinctly off the wavelength here, and I had the sense throughout that this was a particularly British puzzle.

25:08. Not the most strenuous puzzle on the whole, but there were some very cleverly-worded clues that had me scratching my beard for several minutes at a time.