Author: rolytoly

A tougher one today from Hurley, I found, pushing me over the 14 min mark. Some interesting general knowledge, enough imaginative cluing, and you can’t ask for much more than that. I learnt the name … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1038 by Hurley”

Very nice puzzle from Joker. I came in a notch under my target ten but it felt harder than that when solving and a few were bunged in unparsed. Lots of good clues – I … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1028 by Joker”

A bit of an animal theme going on – we have bulls and birds and rodents and a marine mammal or two. Also, after double-checking the history of “rook”, I found a bonus, animal-related verb … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1018 by Tracy”

A good puzzle from Joker – I found it middle-of-the-road in terms of difficulty and a nice smooth solve, with the few trickier clues offset and interspersed with gentler ones. My only real sticking point … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1008 by Joker”

Well this was a tough one all right. There were a number of quite difficult clues cluing quite difficult words, a few of which crossed each other as well, just to compound matters. The top … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 998 by Howzat”

A lovely puzzle from Flamande, a bit towards the harder end of things. I was four minutes over my target ten, having stared blankly at 13 across for a good couple of those before impatiently … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 988 by Flamande”

A slightly tricky puzzle today from Teazel, I found – it took me a good couple of minutes over my target ten to get the cherished “Unlucky!” sign. Presumably an image of Trump was to … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 978 by Teazel”

A most enjoyable puzzle from Hurley today. I blogged a Hurley puzzle a couple of months ago when I was suffering from a self-inflicted sore head, and I was correspondingly jaded in my assessment of … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 973 by Hurley”

A nice gentle one from Rongo today, I think I’m safe in saying, providing a pleasant introduction to the world of cryptic crosswords, with clearly signposted cryptics and definitions. A bit of a biff-fest, then, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 958 by Rongo”

I see this is Wurm’s third outing, the previous two being June and August of this year. June’s was deemed quite easy; August’s was deemed quite hard. This is decidedly in the latter category, if … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 948 by Wurm”