Author: topicaltim

Around 15 minutes for me, which suggests there will be some fast times today: on the one hand this puzzle required some, to my mind, fairly obscure knowledge in the fields of ancient history, religion, … Read more “Times 23,912 – Run of the Mill?”

As is my wont, total time a little over 20 minutes, but an inexplicably long part of that spent spotting the last two (9 down went in very slowly, after which I slapped my forehead … Read more “Times 23,900 – Temporary word blindness and an old friend”

22 minutes, of which an unwontedly large proportion was spent on 13 down. Across 4 MAINSTAYS – guys as in guy-ropes. 9 AGINCOURT – NCO + ‘U’ inside A(rea)GIRT. 10 VERGE – (EG+REV) backwards; possibly … Read more “Times 23,888”

I had one major difficulty here, as will become apparent. 17 minutes of which the last five were spent inwardly debating, and then externally checking, 9 across. Across 5 BRAHMS – as in half of … Read more “Times 23,876 – X marks the spot”

After a lot of very challenging puzzles, we appear to be in much less strenuous territory this week. Another ten minute solve with nothing too obscure. Across 8 ADOPTED – dual meaning, the issue being … Read more “Times 23,864 – In the beginning was the Word”

Connectivity from work has been limited recently, so I thought it best to do this at midnight, and hope that a) the club was working, and b) I didn’t find myself still struggling to finish … Read more “Times 23,852 – A thing of beauty is a joy forever…”

Across 1 SCATTERBRAINED – how do you make it? You ‘scatter’ BREADIN* is how. 12 WATERMARK – W(ith) A TERM ARK. 13 ESCARGOT – true, not much is slower than a snail – CARGO in … Read more “Times 23,840 – A late Valentine”