Author: rolytoly

A gentle enough offering from Orpheus today, if my time of seven-and-a-half minutes is anything to go by. One wrong, of course, but I’d say the “Unlucky!” sign was quite accurate on this occasion (as … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 868 by Orpheus”

Towards the gentler end of things from Rongo today, with the long anagrams at 1ac/1d opening things up nicely. I came in a bit under the 9 minute mark, almost to the second the same … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 858 by Rongo”

A quick, and possibly unreliable, search shows this to be only Juno’s fourth puzzle – the previous one being QC 430, all the way back in November 2015. On that occasion, blogged by Jack, there … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 848 by Juno”

A lovely puzzle from Teazel today, with pretty much every clue reading perfectly as a standalone sentence, and there were some lovely images of biased brunettes and crying schoolboys and short-skirted servants and the like. … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 838 by Teazel”

Quite a tricky one today, I thought. All done bar four after 12 minutes, with the stubborn ones taking me right up to the 20 minute mark. 10ac and 17ac gave way before too long … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 828 by Joker”

A shade harder than average, I’d say, taking me 15 minutes (with one wrong). A couple of bits of obscurity, for me anyway, with 17d and 22ac going in with a shrug: the first I’ve … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 818 by Tracy”

I really enjoyed this – there lots of lovely clues on show today. I particularly liked the intriguing cryptic definition at 1d and the light bit of black humour at 1ac – got a chuckle … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 808 by Teazel”

Well well, Orpheus got the better of me this week. It was Rongo last time round, where I gave up at the 15 minute mark after a blank stare at two unyielding clues. This time … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 798 by Orpheus”

Well well, Rongo got the better of me with this one: all wrapped up nicely by the 10 minute mark, thank you very much, bar a blank stare at 11ac and 25ac… for five minutes, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 788 by Rongo: is 3ac a 1d of 9ac?”

I’ve come in under 7 mins a couple of times, but at 6.27 this is my quickest blog time by quite some way. My times for the rest of the week have all been at … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 778 by Flamande”