Author: rolytoly

I was creeping close to my target, so didn’t hang around to think more about 1d and 18d, and was marginally surprised not to see the unlucky sign for a change. 1d is news to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1438 by Orpheus”

Tricky enough today from Mara. I only had five of the acrosses on a first read over (8,9,10,17,19), and would have been slower than the 11-and-a-half minutes it took me to DNF had it not … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1428 by Mara”

Another tricky enough QC today – I did the last three QCs in a row and took pretty much bang on 15, 9 and 12 minutes for Tue/Wed/today. So halfway between tricky and average by … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1418 by Izetti”

I found this a bit on the trickier side from Joker today. I had to spend a bit of time working out the long 6d before I could get 10ac and the easy enough 4ac, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1408 by Joker”

I found this easier than yesterday’s, which I did just beforehand, but I was aware of that nice experience, notable by its rarity, where for a good number of the clues the first thing that … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1398 by Tracy”

Gentle enough puzzle, perhaps, but that didn’t stop me incorrectly guessing the girl at 24ac and giving 6d less than a minute’s consideration before giving up and sticking in the only remotely plausible answer that … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1393 by Orpheus”

Good quality puzzle from Tracy, somewhere around the average difficulty mark. I finished a few seconds under my target with a few unparsed. Not too much in the way of obscurity, but there are a … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1378 by Tracy”

A bit easier than average, I’d say, and certainly so for an Izetti: I came in with a bit of change from eight-and-a-half minutes, and that included a minute staring dumbly at 2d, for no … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1368 by Izetti”

I crept in a few seconds under my target but I was slow to get going today, only getting 6 of the acrosses on a first read through (1,6,8,10,17,19). It was a case of gradually … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1358 by Pedro”

Perhaps a touch on the trickier side today, hard to say sometimes. At any rate, I did Tuesday’s just before this in a bit under 7 minutes and was correspondingly over the 10 minutes today, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1348by Tracy”