Author: vinyl1

Solving time: 30 minutes Music: Liszt, Operatic Paraphrases, Craig Shepherd This puzzle would have been somewhat easier if the enumerations at the Crossword Club site had been correct. As it was, I was held up … Read more “Times 24647 – You Know My Name (Look Up My Number)!”

Solving time: 21 minutes Music: Grateful Dead, American Beauty As the title indicates, the literals can be made to do most of the work here. I put in three out of the four long ones … Read more “Times 24635 – Taking it literally”

Solving time: 23 minutes Music: Mozart, Piano Concerto K 537, Demus, Collegium Aureum This one was quite easy, and I put in many answers quickly at the beginning. I was prevented from having a really … Read more “Times 24623 – A nice derangement of epitaphs!”

Solving time: 43 minutes Music:Holst, The Planets, Sargent/BBC Symphony This should have been rather easy, but perhaps I was a little tired after three days of golf. There are one or two tricky answers, and … Read more “Times 24611 – Miss Meeber’s Lover”

Solving time: 33 minutes Music: Mozart, Nocturnes and Serenades, Maag/LSO This puzzle has a good mixture of straightforward and tricky clues. It is quite easy to get started, but it may not be so easy … Read more “Times 24599 – Flattery will get you somewhere!”

Solving time: 39 minutes Music: Beethoven, Piano Sonatas, Backhaus This puzzle shows that you should not imagine you can finish quickly until you actually do so. Although I had all but the southeast corner done … Read more “Times 24587 – Otter chaos!”

Solving time: 19 minutes Music: Strauss, Bax, Symphony #7, Leppard/LSO After the sequence of toughies this week, I was a little worried. What I got was a beginner’s puzzle – that is, if you are … Read more “Times 24575 – Still barking up the wrong Tree!”

Solving time: 45 minutes Music: Delius, North Country Sketches, Groves/RPO My time for this puzzle was embarrassing. I raced through most of it in about fifteen minutes, and then got stuck on the last six, … Read more “Times 24563 – Awl’s well that ends well”

Solving time: 43 minutes Music: Mozart, Sinfonia Concertante, Grumiaux/Davis/LSO First, let me thank my colleague Russel John for filling in last week. I had a most enjoyable trip, but my access to the internet was … Read more “Times 24557 – Heathcliff again”

Solving time: 30 minutes Music: Sibelius, Violin Concerto Belkin/Ashkenazy/LSO This is the first puzzle I’ve had to blog that I consider somewhat unsatisfactory. For me, the cryptics lacked the precision one expects in a Ximinean … Read more “Times 24539 – In search of the lost cloud”