Category: Announcement

Due to the last few weeks being the only time of the year when I actually do some real work, as opposed to pretending (hope my employers don’t read this blog!), I haven’t done many … Read more “A “better” class of puzzle”

This is a weekly unofficial contest based on your times for the Times cryptic crossword from Saturday to Friday. In July 2007, someone commenting on Tony Sever’s Times 2 RTC blog suggested a competition like … Read more “Unofficial Times cryptic RTC No. 11 – your times please”

Not long to go before the big day in Cheltenham on Sunday 7 October. Last year we had five of our regular bloggers and commenters among the 24 competitors in the Grand Final. I hope … Read more “Times Championship 2007”

This is a weekly unofficial contest based on your times for the Times cryptic crossword from Saturday to Friday. In July 2007, someone commenting on Tony Sever’s Times 2 RTC blog suggested a competition like … Read more “Unofficial Times cryptic RTC No. 10 – your times please”

[Minor changes to the system below are the result of suggestions in the comments.  The first serious contest will be next week, based on your times for Puzzles from Sat 14 July to Friday 20 … Read more “Racing the cryptic clock – Times for the week’s puzzles”

I got off to a great start today, but got stuck on the two long lights at 1ac and 1dn. Even after I had worked out 1ac, it still took me a while to see … Read more “Direction required?”

Solving time: 3:34, two “writos” (20ac and 6dn). This would have been my best time for this puzzle if I hadn’t written ‘bettee’ for BEETLE at 20ac and ‘alf’ for AUF at 6dn. Enough said. … Read more “ST 4227 – Beetle-brained, ‘alf-witted”

Solving time: 6:22 Quite a few obscure words in this, especially in the top left, but the clues were accurate and helpful. As only 3dn was new to me, I think my time was probably … Read more “ST 4225 – The good, the bad and the unco”

Solving time : 12:44 A very enjoyable puzzle with lots of fun clues and smooth surfaces. And there were a couple I felt smug about getting quickly. Overall I was feeling reasonably pleased when I … Read more “Championship qualifier 3”

I enjoyed this puzzle, but have to admit that some of the joy of completing it was dissipated in the over-reliance on “subtraction” clues, where the solver has to remove parts of words to get … Read more “Surfeit of subtraction”