Author: william_j_s

Well… I made a complete hash of this – very much hope you did better. After my average completion time, I had only 5 answers, and not so much as an inkling about how any … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1457 by Izetti”

A toughie from Teazel, which kept me occupied for almost twice as long as usual. About half went in without much trouble, but scattered all over the grid, and the rest took a bit of … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1447 by Teazel”

Apologies for the terse blog – not much time for pursuits recently with changes at work and an increasingly complex house renovation… This was a fine puzzle – thanks Oran – a little on the … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1437 by Oran”

Slowed down by the SE corner and a couple of words less familiar to me, but otherwise a normal day at the office. Definitions underlined. Across 1 Bother after company curtailed lord in US State … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1427 by Hurley”

This isn’t the daftly easy one I was hoping for after several days of tricky puzzles, but it wasn’t too difficult either. Only 10ac may be an unfamiliar word to new solvers (it comes up … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1417 by Oink”

This had a different feel from the usual QC fare, and I took a while to get into it. I got almost nowhere with the NW corner on first pass, and had to look several … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1412 by Des”

Wurm has caught me out numerous times in the past, so I was glad to finish this in just a little over my target time: a mid-difficulty puzzle, I’d say. I had a bit of … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1397 by Wurm”

This took me a bit longer than Oink’s 2.2 on jackkt’s hardenss scale might suggest, but not a lot. We have this setter’s trademark porcine clue making an appearance at the top of the bill, … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1387 by Oink”

All the vocabulary known to me today, and the clues were easy enough to unpick, which led to a pretty quick time. I had to return to the two longish anagrams at the top and … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1377 by Oink”

I was not on the wavelength for this one, just escaping my personal red zone, although in retrospect there’s nothing really hard. Even the unusual word at 19dn was quite generously signposted (and preceded by … Read more “Times Quick Cryptic 1367 by Mara”