Experienced solvers won’t be expecting much of a challenge from a Monday puzzle, and they won’t be getting it. Yes, I could see where you might be held up if you didn’t have one or two bits of vital information, but each clue offers two simple ways of reaching the answer.
Author: vinyl1
Mephisto 3368 – Xenophon won’t help!
I found this of considerable difficulty, but I eventually solved it, only with one error. Remember, if an answer won’t parse, it is probably wrong.
Times 29179 – OK, but how about the parsing?
I have to admit, I really stepped on it for this one, coming close to my time for the Quickie. The only problem is that I didn’t bother to parse most of the clues, which I will now do.
Attention Quick Cryptic solvers – this is a 15 x 15 that you might want to try.
Mephisto 3366 – Eccentric? Not at all!
This was a relatively easy from Paul; both the cryptics and answers involved very few obscure words or meanings. The main problem for many solvers will be to start thinking in terms of ordinary words and well-know expressions.
Times 29167 – In which we travel a a long way from Charing Cross
Was this tough? Well there were some tricky definitions and some unusual words, so it depends on how good you are.
Mephisto 3364 – Ninja Turtle found in the Valley of Fear
I did OK with this, until I got stuck in the south-west corner. My problem turned out to be that I was looking at the wrong clues for the ones I was trying to solve, because my scribbles had covered up the clue numbers in the grid.
Times 29155 – In C Major?
This one was not too bad, and I got through most of it fairly quickly before getting stuck at the end.
Mephisto 3362 – This one’s for you, Larry!
Last Saturday I was still a bit under the weather, and couldn’t get anywhere with this puzzle. It really wasn’t that difficult, but I wasn’t sharp enough to tackle it, and couldn’t get any of the four long answers, which is the key to solving this particular grid.
Times 29143 – Solvable!
I have had an annoying cold this week, and it seems to have impacted my solving. I felt very slow solving this one, even though my time was acceptable.
Mephisto 3360 – Or maybe over easy?
This one was not too bad, although a bit harder than Paul’s usual. After much struggle, I kept saying I should have seen that one right away.