Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 10:37 A definite increase in difficulty since yesterday – rather than writing in the first two acrosses on first look and most of the intersecting downs, I had to wait until 10 across … Read more “24625 – doom and gloom dispelled by craftsmanship”

If you’re wondering “Where’s Jimbo?”, we have swapped weeks for administrative reasons: and this has resulted in me getting probably the easiest puzzle I’ve blogged, so if he gets a stinker next week, I apologise … Read more “Times 24,624”

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: 3:52 Yet another erroneous clue (for LEGALISED at 6dn), probably with a missing word, detracted from what was an otherwise mostly reasonable puzzle. * = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’. Across 1 … Read more “ST 4394 (Sun 15 Aug) – Illegalised”

37:27 .. Apologies if this blog is a little less sophisticated than the puzzle deserves. I’m stepping in last minute and late at night after Sabine’s computer declared war on her. I think we’ve all … Read more “Times 24621”

When I got down to solving today’s puzzle, 1Across made me reach for Chambers to confirm my vague memory of an Egyptian god and when I parsed it, I went to YouTube and started a … Read more “Times 24620 – The Blue Danube Waltz”

Solving time: 9:09 Most of this was pretty quick, but the NE corner put up a fight – my order for this: 6, 10, 8, 12, 5, 14, 4D. 11 and 1D went in without … Read more “24619 – Howdy, sailor”

Under 15 minutes for a solid puzzle; if I had to sum it up in a word, it might be “workmanlike”, which is not intended as a criticism. A couple of nice &lits, and a … Read more “Times 24,618 – Open Season”

Solving Time: 36 minutes I solved this in a hotch-potch fashion, never really being able to establish a coal face to work at and several times thought I’d be left with embarrassing gaps; but it … Read more “Times 24617 – Oh, say can you see…”

Solving time: 4:42 I printed this off at the same time as another puzzle, then got them mixed up. The result was I thought this was a daily puzzle from The Times until I’d finished … Read more “ST 4393 (Sun 8 Aug) – Stop gap”