Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time 25 minutes Standard fare of average difficulty with no real quibbles. A couple of unusual usages and some well signalled anagrams. The song “Daisy, Daisy” may not be familiar to the younger solver … Read more “Times 24,492 Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”

Solving time:42 minutes Music: Holst, Choral Symphony, Boult/LPO This one started out easily enough, but ended up being tough at the end. The correct spelling of ‘Roentgen’ is absolutely essential for finishing. I had it … Read more “Times 24491 – The answers, but some questions”

Solving time: 5:13, one mistake (10ac). This might have been quicker if my Ks, Us and Ls didn’t look like Gs, Ls and Is repectively, and if I hadn’t rushed into an incorrect answer at … Read more “ST 4372 (Sun 14 Mar) – Edit Iranian”

The clue for 12 Across printed in the newspaper is: People rejoicing with composer gathering on outskirts of Czech city (15)

Solving time: 30:00 with only 17 clues solved correctly (13 unsolved, 2 wrong) (or 16 solved correctly and 3 wrong if my guess for 15D – that the expected answer is ESMERELDA rather than ESMERALDA … Read more “TLS Puzzle No. 822 (and a unresolved clue from No. 806)”

It’s the double act again, as our star has been locked out of her dressing room, from the inside. What is going on in there? Mctext says: Pretty straightforward puzzle which I did in 12 … Read more “Times 24489 – All present and correct”

What a fun puzzle to blog. This compiler has a very creative approach to the definitions. Some are very original and most of them are woven so smoothly and unobtrusively into the surface reading. Very … Read more “Times 24488 – A Real Smoothie”

Solving time: 6:45 A pretty easy puzzle, partly for the reason mentioned by linxit yesterday – this puzzle has 6 multi-word answers compared to yesterday’s 1. I think there are also a few more easy … Read more “Times 24487”

24:47 here, so definitely on the tough side, unless it was just a case of me not being on the right wavelength for this setter. However, if it was hard, it was certainly hard but … Read more “Times 24,486”

Solving time: 65 minutes A day of wine and roses, well plants, but you get the idea. Some easy and familiar gets, tempered by some not so. I eventually got stuck for a good 20 … Read more “Times 24485 – A feverish few minutes”