Author: rolytoly

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”

A touch on the harder side today from Teazel. I had three blank as my target ten minutes came and went: 1d, 2d and 20ac. The last of these was the first to fall, after … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1118 by Teazel”

Middle of the road from Joker today, I’d say, in terms of both difficulty and quality. The average standard is very high, though, so all good! I started off slowly enough, eventually getting about half … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1108 by Joker”

Somewhat unusual solve for me today: I was getting through the acrosses rightly, with every one solved, so was busy anticipating an extremely rare perfect solve, only to come unstuck at each of the bottom … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1098 by Teazel”

On the gentler side today from Mara. I came in three minutes under my target, with a bit of biffing and help from some familiar clues. There are a limited number of ways of clueing … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1088 by Mara”

Tricky enough one today, I found, taking me nearly four minutes over my target ten – as a comparison, I did yesterday’s immediately before this and came in two minutes under. Not my finest performance: … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1078 by Mara”