Author: rolytoly

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”

Very enjoyable, as always, from Izetti. There was a bit of an animal theme. The grid presented a couple of other nice ideas as well – for those adorned with excessive levels of outsize jewellery, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 768 by Izetti”

This was my slowest time after a few speedyish days, coming in at 12-and-a-half minutes, so maybe slightly harder than average. Bonus new word (or re-learnt word), which is always nice, and one I’ll try … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 758 by Rongo”

A bit north of tipsy when doing this, I gave up after 16 minutes. In retrospect, I would have been a while getting 12d, but I really should have got 13ac without… well, it’s not … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 748 by Joker”