Author: topicaltim

Rather worryingly, this is the sort of time by which I would normally hope to have finished the actual solving and be blogging the result, but as yet I can’t even access today’s puzzle. Whether … Read more “Times 24,139 – Never Mind the Ballcocks”

One of those where I felt myself on the right wavelength from the off. Several classical references, which always helps me, but which might hold up those who, like Peter Cook, never had the Latin; … Read more “Times 24,127 – We’ve had a letter from a Mrs Trellis of North Wales…”

Some nicely misleading definitions in this puzzle such as “pieces”, “sporting” and “scholarship”, and a couple of unusual ones – “apostle spoon”, “corner bacon” – made this a slightly more testing proposition than it first … Read more “Times 24,115 – Pieces of Eight…and Bacon”

I tackled this after returning from a pre-Christmas gathering with some old friends for curry and beer, the intention being to leave it till the morning if it proved too taxing; it didn’t (22 minutes), … Read more “Times 24,104 – For the benefit of Messrs Hayden and Katich”

Easily sub-10 minutes here; shall I tempt fate by saying this looks like it’s going to be one of those easy weeks after some quite testing puzzles in the last fortnight? No, best not. I … Read more “Times 24,092 – The Bare Necessities”

A straightforward puzzle, albeit one that gave me a perfect demonstration of how putting in just one wrong solution without thinking can bring an entire corner (in this case the Geordie one) to a complete … Read more “Times 24,080 – Pulp Fiction”

I must confess I thought I would kill two birds with one stone here, and do a midnight solve on the PC while watching BBC4’s How To Solve a Cryptic Crossword on iPlayer in another … Read more “Times 24,068 – How Not To Solve A Cryptic Crossword”

Solving time : 26 minutes, so slower than a normal Tuesday. On the other hand I have the dreaded Man Flu, and am far from my sharpest, so I suspect this is a lot more … Read more “Times 24,056 – Meat and Drink”

Solving time : 19 minutes, and once more my alternate Tuesday presents another pleasant and straightforward solve, at least as far as I was concerned. Q0-E5-D5. Across 1 DROWSY – (SWORD)rev + (fault)Y. 4 SUPERMAN … Read more “Times 24,044 – The Devil to Pay”

Solving time : 17 minutes, so no major hold-ups in another moderate Tuesday puzzle. Very even and perfectly pleasant solve for me, with some nicely disguised definitions. One archaic word, acknowledged as such in the … Read more “Times 24,032 – a diamond in the rough”