Author: richardvg

Times 24,261 Solving time: 19:44 This seemed like a tricky one. None of it was fast, and the South East corner took me longest. I put in four answers with no idea of the wordplay … Read more “Times 24,261”

Solving time: 14:40 I am sure the RMT have good reason for striking, but not having an underground journey disrupts my crosswording. My time may well be better than it would have been as I … Read more “Times 24,249”

Solving time: 9:46 I had never heard of ROCHET at 12A, and was close to guessing POCHET, on the basis that “going to POT” is somehow related to “decline”. Other words that I knew but … Read more “Times 24,237”

Solving time: 16:41 – with one wrong (4D) This felt like hard work, but rewarding. After the first run through I had a scattering of answers and a complete blank in the North West corner. … Read more “Times 24225”

Solving time: 5:38 Being so late doing the puzzle, I decided to make a start on the tube platform, as the indicator said there was six minutes until the next train. And I finished it … Read more “Times 24,213”

Solving time: 13:08 Relieved to finish in a reasonable time. There were three words I just didn’t know: 28 (MAYWEED) was a plausible name for a plant, but 23 (ZENANA) and 19 (STABILE) were bold … Read more “Times 24207”

Solving time: 13:54 I did better than yesterday, when I was stumped by the cricket references. It could have been faster if I had spotted 1A sooner, but although I was expecting it to mean … Read more “Times 24189”

Solving time: 25 mins with one missing I think this was a tricky puzzle, but I made heavy weather of it. In the end, after spending several minutes working out the difficult 27A, I simply … Read more “Times 24177”

Solving time: 11:13 Fairly fast before I came to a screeching halt on 14D (PERSEPHONE). As a young boy I read far too many Biggles books, so enjoyed 19Ac. His being such a bad writer … Read more “Times 24,153”

Solving time: 17:57 I would probably have done this slightly faster if the letter-counts had not been wrong for most of the clues in the new-style print-out. I skipped yesterday’s puzzle and so was unprepared. … Read more “Times 24141 – wrong numbers again”