Author: TheRotter

Nothing too difficult here, if one discounts the UK centric General Knowledge (TYNE), a new word (for me at least), the school pudding and the dodgy homophone.  At 13 minutes, this was comfortably inside my … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 963 by Orpheus”

I managed to whizz through this inside 8 minutes, which is my fastest time for a QC for a while, although there was lots of subtlety and fine surfacing here.  I think I was helped … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 953 by Mara”

Well this threw up a surprise or two, with 12a slowing me down in particular, and resulting in a time of 17 minutes for me.  Some nice succinct clues though, and a nice selection of … Read more “Quick cryptic No 943 by Tracy”

I’m ashamed to say that this took me 16 minutes, which I put down to a combination of jet-lag and lack of practice, both the result of more than two weeks spent in Florida.  As … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 933 by Joker”

I know that we bloggers say this a lot, but there really are some elegant surfaces here if you look for them.  In the across clues, 8, 16, 17 and 23, and in the down … Read more “Quick cryptic No 923 by Joker”

I found this to be a nice easy romp by Izetti, and completed it well inside 10 minutes, being helped by spotting the two long down clues almost immediately. There were no difficult or unusual … Read more “Quick Cryptic No 913 by Izetti”

Another nice puzzle from Hurley, with a little bit of GK (general knowledge) in 12a, 13a and 22a, but all fairly clued.  Hurley traditionally utilises a good mix of clue types, and this is repeated … Read more “Quick cryptic No 903 by Hurley”

A mostly excellent workout from Izetti which I predict will cause some new solvers a few problems.  I certainly struggled with some parts of this and took well over my target of 15 minutes.  There … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 893 by Izetti”

Inside 10 minutes for this entertaining little offering from Tracy, so after some slow solves earlier this week, I feel that I am back on track, or on the wavelength. Some less common words here … Read more “Quick cryptic No 883 by Tracy”

Twelve minutes to complete, and then a couple of minutes scratching my head over the parsing of 14A.  I’m not entirely satisfied even now, so maybe a chance for someone to ILLUMINE the setter’s thinking.  … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic No 873 by Joker”