Author: rolytoly

A nice sprinkling of history in today’s tricky offering from Izetti. We had a Victorian cardinal, the First and Second World Wars, an old clan member (if we’re to stretch a point), and two references … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 668 by Izetti”

This was a lovely puzzle from Joker – a good range of difficulty in the clues and some very inventive ones to boot. I particularly liked 17ac: not a double definition, not a triple, not … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 658 by Joker”

I enjoyed this – nice devices and lots of good surface readings made it a smooth and satisfying solve. A minute over my target ten with 19d unparsed. Had I not been blogging, I would … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 648 by Corelli”

A really enjoyable puzzle from Flamande. I came in around 15 mins, so maybe a bit harder than average. I came a bit of a cropper at 21ac, happily bunging in “resort” for “reorganise religious … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 638 by Flamande”

Another lovely puzzle from Izetti, this. Unfortunately I made a complete hash of it: two non-entries and what turned out to be a mistake after 20 minutes. “Putech” for 1ac definitely didn’t look like a … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 628 by Izetti”

I enjoyed this puzzle – some novel clues and lots of nice surface readings. Within the bounds of average difficulty, I’d say, almost coming witin 2 minutes of my target 10 mins. I particularly liked … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 618 by Izetti”

A pleasant solve this, towards the easier end – I was 15 mins yesterday, and about half that time today. A little bit 8ac, even, if you’ve been doing cryptics for a while, as a … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 608 by Hawthorn”

A really nice puzzle, towards the harder end of the spectrum. I did yesterday’s just before this, and took just over twice as long today at 16 mins, so on a made-up scale of difficulty … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 598 by Teazel”

A tough but rewarding puzzle, with the left hand side taking a bit of work. I don’t recall seeing the grid layout before – 11ac and 18ac could both be completed without so much as … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 588 by Orpheus”

A nice offering from Dazzler, this. I found it about as close to ‘average’ difficulty as I could pinpoint, whatever that might mean what with all the different wavelengths floating around. I’m not sure how … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 578 by Dazzler”