Robert Teuton has provided us with a middle level puzzle with a few clues requiring a bit of special knowledge, but nothing that is too hard to figure out.
Author: vinyl1
From the Editor, Jason Crampton
Jason has been kind enough to post a reply to the complaints about extremely difficult puzzles on Friday.
Times 29443 – Monday – another tricky day?
I seem to have found this puzzle a lot harder than everyone else, but the leaderboard and the SNITCH seem to be surprisingly sparse.
Mephisto 3410 – Pi in the sky
The trend of easier Mephisto puzzles continues, but I’m sure the trend will reverse itself shortly. I solved this one in one session on a Saturday night while waiting for George’s blog. Nearly all the words, and many of the cryptic elements, are not in any way obscure, and most of the answers were short.
Times 29431 – Just right!
I would have to say that this puzzle is very, very good without being excessively tricky. Everything is completely fair, you just have to take what the setter says and run with it. I tried to speed up by putting in the easy answers and biffing the rest, but to no avail.
Quick Cryptic 3187 by Izetti – Ouch!
A fairly easy puzzle, but the blog was anything but easy. See within.
Mephisto 3408 – You’ve got me, Paul!
This was quite an easy one from Paul, except for one small point. The answers are mostly quite accessible, even if some of the wordplay is a bit convoluted.
Times Cryptic Jumbo 1764 – Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia!
I managed to solve this one readily enough, spread out over several sessions. The second long answer is not used in the USA, and I had to get a number of crossers before concluding what the answer must be.
Times Cryptic 29419 – Just a bit tricky
This puzzle should not have been hard, but I was left with four unsolved at 15 minutes, and I struggled mightily with those.
Mephisto 3406 – At the Edinburgh rave!
Robert Teuton’s puzzle is a bit more difficult than usual, with a number of interesting words. It took me a long time to finish, and I went on many wild-goose chases without catching any wild geese.