Author: rolytoly

With about nine-and-a-half minutes on the clock and just 12d left to get, I’d say this was about bang on average difficulty, but a carelessly bunged in wrong ending at 17ac saw fit to my … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1218 by Hurley”

A gentle enough puzzle by Izetti’s standards. After Jeremy’s excellent blog yesterday, detailing his very good approach to solving a cryptic crossword, I’ll just say I rushed through this, paying scant attention to the artfully … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1208 by Izetti”

A gentler puzzle today from Teazel, hopefully something of a relief after a run of trickier offerings. I tackled this directly after doing Tuesday’s 15x and QC, both of which were tough, and was rewarded … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1198 by Teazel”

Slightly on the tricky side, I found, coming in two minutes over my target (with the possibly mitigating factor of a hangover). A fairly straight solve, but I was held up for a bit in … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1188 by Hurley”

I was bang on my target for this good quality puzzle, but there was a bit of trickery and misdirection so I’d say it was a touch on the harder side. The misdirection was of … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1178 by Flamande”

I came in a minute or so under my target with no major holdups beyond an unparsed 22ac, so on the gentle side of average difficulty. There were three instances of directly using the words … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1168 by Hurley”

I threw in the towel at the 18 minute mark with a guess at 23ac and a made-up anagram of “female” at 10ac. Lots of tricky cluing with surfaces that read seamlessly and required a … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1158 by Izetti”

Middle of the road from Tracy today. I was held to a couple of minutes over my target thanks to a mental block at 1ac: I had all but five done by the 6 minute … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1148 by Tracy”

Good puzzle from Orpheus, bad solve from me. I got into a flap at 1ac because I remembered the same clue cropping up recently, but couldn’t for the life of me remember what that damn … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1138 by Orpheus”

A lovely puzzle today from Tracy, with lots of simple, natural disguises – the anagram indicator at 9ac and the “country retreat” at 12ac are two I see without having to scroll too far down. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1128 by Tracy”