Author: william_j_s

I’m back on the blog after a bit of a hiatus; thanks to Mohn for giving me a holiday two weeks ago. I found this a tricky puzzle to get into, with particular difficulty in … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 195 by Teazel”

I’m standing in for mohn today. A mixed bag of predominantly straightforward clues, which required the dredging-up of one or two half-forgotten bits of vocabulary. Lots of nice surfaces to throw you off the scent, … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 176 by Tracy”

A puzzle of intermediate difficulty, which has plenty of inventive crypticness and tongue-in-cheek definitions. There’s nothing unfair about any of these clues, but a decent amount of lateral thinking is required for some! I was … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 175 by Teazel”

This is quite a tricky puzzle, in my opinion, which makes use of some archaic and unusual words. I got almost all the way there before having to resort to the internet for 18dn. It’s … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 165 by Izetti”

A teasing crossword to round off an excellent week of quickies. For me, the recent level of difficulty has been just right – some new vocabulary fairly clued and some chewy wordplay for more obvious … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 155 by Dazzler”

A bit of Friday fun, which took me much longer to blog than to solve. Many of the surface meanings are neat and misleading, but not so devious as to throw us off the scent … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 145 by Rongo”

Not quite a stroll for me, with plenty of clues I struggled with. 16ac was my first one in and even once I got going I was held up by one or two unusual or … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 135 by Teazel”

Another eminently solvable puzzle for learners like me, in which most of the word play is straightforward. A couple of answers (17dn & 19ac) required a bit more thought on my part, but there is … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 125 by Mara”

A fairly straightforward puzzle with some super anagrams, only one double definition, and a couple of less familiar words to keep you on your toes. Most of the across clues went in on the first … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 115 by Hurley”

I found this pretty meaty and I didn’t manage to finish it on my commute (my daily aim) despite the continuing signalling faults. I need help for 3dn from anyone who understands the wordplay! 13ac … Read more “Quick Cryptic Number 95 by Mara”