I printed out three puzzles for the evening, and whipped through the Quickie. Next up was supposed to be the main puzzle, but the puzzle on my clipboard was the Championship final. Fortunately, I realized this immediately from the difficulty of the clues – no easy Monday this! Turning to the correct puzzle with relief, I found it not as easy as usual, although not really hard.
Author: vinyl1
Some changes at TftT
As many of you know, Piquet has resigned from the Wednesday daily cryptic slot. Over the past few weeks, JerryW has been blogging half time in this slot.
Mephisto 3396 – Making new pals while solving quickly!
Here we have a puzzle from the milder end of the Mephisto spectrum. The average cryptic solver might not do so well, but hardened Mephisto enthusiasts will not have much difficulty.
Times 29347 – Cherry picking?
I tore through this fairly quickly, and it will be a breeze for most experienced solvers. There were some good clues, but those speeding along with just put in the obvious answer an move on.
Mephisto 3394 – Hope and pray!
The puzzle itself was of moderate difficulty, and I solved it over a couple of days. Somehow, the answers kept coming to me, and I was able to parse them all without calling for assistance.
Times 29335 – A test drive
I thought his puzzle was going to give trouble, so I picked off some of the easier clues to get started. The setter offers some novel constructions, and is definitely fond of removing letters from words.
Mephisto 3392 – Topical excursions
There was nothing very difficult for hardened Mephisto solvers here, although I was a bit slow on finishing owing to other activities.
Times 29323 – Anagram city!
Here we have a typical Monday offering, which should not prove very challenging for most of our regular crew.
Mephisto 3390 – Quite raggedy, I would say!
I realized today that due to the press of business in one of my unpaid jobs, I had not finished this puzzle, so I had to sit down at 7 to polish it off and do the blog. It was not very difficult, but some of the wordplay relies on quite obscure meanings of words you probably know in another context.
Times 29311 – In the soup? Yes, it is!
I did not find this particularly difficult, at least to solve. The problem was getting the puzzle, since the Crossword Club is unable to provide it. Fortunately, it eventually appeared in the online newspaper and I was able to print off a copy.