Author: topicaltim

Solving time : 45 minutes, making this the trickiest Tuesday I’ve come across in a while, though obviously your mileage may vary. More to do with some well-disguised definitions in the clues than obscure vocabulary … Read more “Times 24,020”

Solving time : 12 minutes for me, suggesting the real speedsters will be having soft-boiled eggs for breakfast today; for the more leisurely in manner, another pleasant Tuesday puzzle. By my reckoning only one or … Read more “Times 24,008 – Calling All Elf Fans…”

Solving time : 16 minutes, for a very amiable puzzle, with nothing especially demanding to detain most solvers, I’d have thought (and a couple of clues which raised a chuckle from this one, at least). … Read more “Times 23,996 – Double Science”

Solving time : 20 minutes, most of which was spent rounding up a small number of recalcitrant answers in 9 ac, 22 ac and 27 ac. I got off to a flying start down the … Read more “Times 23,984”

Solving time : 9 minutes. I shall take my cue from the setter and descibe this Tuesday puzzle as a nice straightforward vanilla puzzle. Nothing wrong with vanilla, say I, though you wouldn’t necessarily want … Read more “Times 23,972 – Yaroo!”

Solving time : 15 minutes. Very similar to last Tuesday’s: straightforward without ever being insultingly easy. I’d imagine the sort of puzzle that is good for newer solvers without surrendering too easily to older hands. … Read more “Times 23,960”

Solving time : 8 minutes, and nothing to make me think this is going to detain most solvers for anything approaching their usual time. Some odd things which might be obscure in the real world, … Read more “Times 23,954 – A sinecure indeed…”

Solving time : a slightly longer than usual 30 minutes. One answer I was unfamiliar with and checked, but the construction meant that with the checking letters in place it literally couldn’t be anything other … Read more “Times 23,948 – Play Your Cards Right”

Solving time : a straightforward and enjoyable 20 minutes, including a quick Google where wordplay made an answer obvious, but the actual knowledge which explained it was outside my ornithological experience… Across 1 SANDPIPER – … Read more “Times 23,936 – Occasionally knotty”

Solving time : Around 15 minutes – somewhat in contrast to yesterday’s! ETA Having now looked at the solving times elsewhere, I can only conclude that I have had one of those happy days where … Read more “Times 23,924”