Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: about 7 mins I think, with one silly mistake (21dn). Mostly concisely clued with a few decent cryptic definitions. Double definition clues often seem to be my downfall (as in the recent Times … Read more “ST 4355 (Sun 15 Nov) – Desert storm”

This was a very lively puzzle that gave me some real problems most of which were of my own making. In several places (1 dn second word for example) I thought of the right answer … Read more “Times 24388 – Don’t Knock It”

Solving time : could not do this in one session. After about 15 minutes, had to put it down, get a few other errands done, and came back a few hours later, saw one or … Read more “Times 24387 – Do, do, do the funky historian”

Solving time: 24:37 A real struggle this one, though maybe I was under the “blogger’s curse”. Apart from a pencilled-in VERB at the end of 17, 26A was my first answer. I then misunderstood the … Read more “Times 24386”

Solving time : 25 minutes Standard Times fare, neither easy nor difficult. A touch of the Edwardian in places but no real obscurities other than an old Roman. Overseas solvers may struggle with the acronym … Read more “Times 24,385 Egad! Which Cinna was that?”

Solving time: 4:14, one mistake (‘flitter’ for GLITTER at 18dn). Another reasonable puzzle – not totally accurate but mostly explainable to beginners without requiring too many apologies for ‘crosswordese’ or poor clues. Just a little … Read more “ST 4354 (Sun 8 Nov) – Glitter bug”

Solving time: 24 minutes Music: Sibelius, Symphony #2, SchIppers/NYP This easy puzzle threatened to turn into the blogger’s nightmare, where you simply don’t know the last answers, and the cryptics are not particularly helpful. I … Read more “Times 24384 – How does your garden grow?”

Solving time: 16.59 Not expecting any medals for this time. I was held up in quite a few places by unfamiliar words or phrases and had to rely on wordplay, which was fortunately unambiguous. I … Read more “Times Crossword 24382”

Solving time: 5:54 A very fast time for me, and so I won’t be surprised if some others get well under 5 minutes. A pretty straightforward puzzle, though with lots of fun clues. I particularly … Read more “Times 24,381”

Solving time: 20:20 A fairly slow solve after three weeks away from cryptics apart from yesterday when I did about four of the Times puzzles I missed. While on the trip, which included some long … Read more “24380 – Back in harness …”