Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 30 minutes (3 wrong) If only I’d watched Walt Disney’s One Hundred and One Dalmatians I’d probably have got PERDITA, and that would have been enough to give me SPOT (hah! another Nina?) … Read more “TLS 842 (23 July)”

 I hope I won’t be the only person to have found this difficult. I started out quite comfortably and for a while I thought I was heading for a respectable solving time (for me) of … Read more “24615 – A STING IN THE TAIL”

Solving time : 34 minutes! Didn’t notice how much time had gone by, and maybe the problem was I’d only had two beers but I found this one an almighty struggle. A lot of small … Read more “Times 24614: a walk in the Jurassic park”

Solving time: 6:28 Another pretty easy puzzle with mild bits of general knowledge required if you want to get to the end quickly. I wrote in 1, 12, 15, and 28 without working out the … Read more “24613”

Solving time 10 minutes A very easy puzzle that requires a fair smattering of general knowledge but nothing really obscure. No real talking points other than perhaps at 1D where I’m not certain about “fatty … Read more “Times 24,612 Trivial Pursuits”

Solving time: 43 minutes Music:Holst, The Planets, Sargent/BBC Symphony This should have been rather easy, but perhaps I was a little tired after three days of golf. There are one or two tricky answers, and … Read more “Times 24611 – Miss Meeber’s Lover”

Solving time: 4:10 It’s been said that if you have nothing nice to say, you should say nothing. That, however, is not the lot of the blogger. This was dire. I dallied briefly at the … Read more “ST 4392 (Sun 1 Aug) – Blankety banco”

Solved in three or four sessions, only about half of it going without assistance. Definitely one of the harder ones, although 842 was even tougher. Across 1 CLERIHEW – “A verse”. A comic verse form … Read more “TLS 841 (16th July)”

A puzzle that seemed heavy with Scots, drunkenness and fish. I wasn’t able to time it properly due to various interruptions – a newly-arrived guest needing bedlinen, the way guests do, and the visiting cat … Read more “Times Crossword 24609”

A very interesting puzzle today with some cheeky and innovative wordplay. Enjoyable and a huge delight to solve. ACROSS1 MASH M (MATE minus ATE, consumed) AS (when) H (hot)3 PUTSCHISTS Cha of PUT (throw) + … Read more “Times 24608 – Galleon of Treasures”