Author: rolytoly

The curse of the last clue struck again, and I gave up and clicked on the answer after a bit of an impatient stare at 17d. There’s little excuse for this when the clock is … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1978 by Pedro”

I was 8 minutes yesterday and 12 today, done straight after, so either this was a(nother) tough one or my wavelength is all over the show. My major holdups were having to write out the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1968 by Corelli”

A bit on the tricky side today from Pedro, with a generous dose of originality that made it great fun. It would be easy to get bogged down with the harder clues, so a good … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1958 by Pedro”

Some quite tricky things going on in an inventive puzzle from Orpheus: I was a 9:30 DNF, with a couple of optimistic guesses at 20ac before giving up and clicking on the answer. I was … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1928 by Orpheus”

Around average difficulty today from Breadman: I was 8 minutes on the button, coming back to finish in the top-left. Some, like 21ac, were easier to biff than to parse, and there was a good … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1918 by Breadman”

On the gentler side of things today from Breadman. I missed three clues on a first read through of the acrosses (8, 10, 21), which made for a lot of biffing come the downs, and … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1908 by Breadman”

A touch under 11 minutes, around a minute longer than yesterday’s, so tricky enough and it took a while to get going properly. A top-notch puzzle, with lovely surfaces and satisfying misdirection throughout. A few … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1898 by Wurm”

I think around 7 minutes to get to the ‘Unlucky!’ sign, and then another perplexed minute or so staring at 9ac and 6d before clicking on the answer: at the time of solving the answers … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1888 by Joker”

Quite an inventive puzzle today from Teazel. Of similar difficulty to yesterday’s, I found, coming in close to 8 minutes for both. It took me a while to get going, failing on the first four … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1858 by Teazel”

On the gentle side of things today from Trelawney, at least I think so – for some unknowable reason I’ve been on a run of decent form of recent, and at 5.20 this is my … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 1848 by Trelawney”