Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 6:19 I wonder what merited Plymouth Argyle’s appearance in prime position at 1/6ac? Perhaps the setter is a supporter. Whatever, it’s the last time the Pilgrims, as they are known, will be at … Read more “ST 4345 (Sun 6 Sep) – Pilgrims ogrish”

Time taken to solve: Off the scale again with this one. Certainly well over the hour and I still have one unexplained. I think my difficulty was the lack of answers containing more than one … Read more “24328 – No relief”

Solving time : 28 minutes (but with one horrible horrible mistake!!!!) – if I wasn’t writing the blog I would have gone for the aids. There’s a lot of depth in here – some general … Read more “Times 24327 – hmmm, haven’t seen that before…”

Solving time: 8:38 Apart from some carelessness at 15D and a partly self-inflicted brief struggle with the last few in the SW corner (16, 14D, 20, 25), this was fairly plain sailing combined with some … Read more “Times 24326 – memento mori?”

Solving time : 25 minutes A puzzle of mid-range difficulty containing a wide range of topics. The football team will hamper overseas solvers (and perhaps some locals as well). There is the customary collection of … Read more “Times 24325 Trivial Pursuits”

Solving time: 48 minutes Music: None, I’m in a remote part of Connecticut for the Labor Day holiday, no vinyl here. I found this a bit on the hard side, and was distracted by my … Read more “Times 24324: Hunting vocabulary, out in India!”

Solving time: 5:33 I hadn’t seen a crossword for a couple of weeks when I did this but it was a gentle re-introduction. There seems to be an animal theme with bears, horses, lions, antelopes, … Read more “ST 4344 (Sun 30 Aug) – Animal Farm”

Solving time: 14.14 I thought this was a good puzzle, with some very neat and clever clueing. I was slow to see the two long across answers at 10 and 25, which probably added a … Read more “Times Crossword 24322”

Solving time: 14:30 I found some of this rather tough, though with lots to enjoy. I was going to write that there was nothing very obscure, but then I had never heard of Perm (5A), … Read more “Times 24,321”

Solving time: 10:05 Forgot to note which answers came last, but can certainly tell you which wordplay came last – 3D, well after solving and explaining everything else. There are some very good clues here, … Read more “Times 24320”