Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 7:57 A mediocre puzzle with some wackiness, notably at 10ac (SPHERE) and 15ac (UGLY CUSTOMER). My last entry was 11dn (MINUETS), which would have been difficult anyway with just three out of seven … Read more “ST 4396 (Sun 29 Aug) – Tears for spheres”

Solving time: 30:00 (1 wrong) At present I just don’t seem to be able to nail a TLS puzzle, and again finished with one letter wrong: BELL instead of DELL at 25A. GALT (10A) and … Read more “TLS 844 (13 August)”

Sorry folks, Lack of a report here is entirely my fault. Sabine has given up her Friday slot and I failed to complete the process of finding a new candidate in time. I’ll write something … Read more “24633 – placeholder, updated”

Today’s puzzle should be a breeze to most regulars. No hard-boiled eggs apart from a couple of unusual words in 11 and 26 which are very gettable from the word-play. ACROSS1 rha deliberately omitted3 SPOTTED … Read more “Times 24632 – No Sweat”

Solving time: 8:50 A fairly straightforward solve – not blindingly fast, but never seriously stuck. 14 and 17 both written without full wordplay understanding. Last in were 22 and 19. Across 1 POLY=college,AN,THUS=”in this way” … Read more “24631”

Solving time 10 minutes Those tuning in to sample the artistry of Tim will have to put up with his country cousin as we swapped so that Tim could do yesterday’s puzzle. Very easy but … Read more “Times 24,630 Easy Peasy”

The received wisdom (which I believe we are told to ignore by the Crossword Editor) is that Monday puzzles, if not always easy, tend to the easier end of the spectrum, but that Bank Holiday … Read more “Times 24,629”

Solving time: 4:36 By the time I’d solved this I’d already seen a comment on last week’s puzzle pointing out a mistake at 26ac (‘Remainder left inside – one of 28 here’), which I therefore … Read more “ST 4395 (Sun 22 Aug) – Clueless”

Time taken to solve: 45 minutes. I thought I was heading for about 30 but the SE corner, 15dn in particular, put up some resistance at the end. Mostly a fairly straightforward puzzle with only … Read more “Times 24627 – One Hump or Two?”

Solving time : 21 leisurely minutes. I’m in Boston right now, and was solving this at the bar over a pizza and a few pints of delicious Harpoon Pale Ale at Ducali’s. If I had … Read more “Times 24626: I’m having a tea party!”