Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 17:19, around par for me. By now, Peter’s probably down Tom Brown’s cafe in Magaluf for the all-day breakfast, lining his stomach ahead of a night on the town (15 pints of Watney’s … Read more “Times 24,266”

Solving time: 19 minutes Music: Smetana, Ma Vlast, Kubelik/VPO Another not terribly challenging Monday puzzle. Kororareka is getting all the difficult ones for now, but that is likely to change at any time. I felt … Read more “Times 24264: An airborne wizard stopped in Dublin for a drink….”

I was interrupted when solving this so didn’t record a time but I think it would have been fairly quick as most of the puzzle was on the easy side. This was partly due to … Read more “ST 4334 (Sun 21 Jun) – Hail Mary”

Solving time: 9.18 Nothing too difficult in this puzzle, which has several helpful features such as the two four word answers at 12 and 20 ac, both of which are common phrases, and the long … Read more “Times Crossword 24262”

Times 24,261 Solving time: 19:44 This seemed like a tricky one. None of it was fast, and the South East corner took me longest. I put in four answers with no idea of the wordplay … Read more “Times 24,261”

Solving time: 7:16 A puzzle that seemed to go well for me – there are a few strange words which might hold people up. Only 4D was entered without wordplay understanding. Across 1 V(ALL)ET,T.A.=Territoral Army … Read more “Times 24260”

A straightforward 15 minute solve for me, with some nice touches. Q0-E7-D4 Across 1 SHOPPING – S(ales) + HOP(P)ING. 6 ABJECT – AB + (C)irca in JET. 9 WARDOUR STREET – (DRAW)*+ OUR + (SETTER)*; … Read more “Times 24,259 – He’s Not the Messiah, He’s a Very Naughty Boy”

Solving time: Don’t ask embarrassing questions Saturday’s events presaged disaster for me on this one. I was wondering how I would know if this were really Monday’s puzzle and not Saturday’s finally appearing online on … Read more “Times 24258 – There be pirates.”

Solving time: 4:19 Nothing too difficult here but some very good clues – one of the best puzzles for a while, I thought, the error at 21ac excepted. * = anagram, “X” = sounds like … Read more “ST 4333 (Sun 14 Jun) – Infra digs”

This puzzle had some cracking surfaces but in other respects it was a fairly routine offering that delayed me longer than it should have. I felt sure that I was going to finish well within my personal … Read more “Times 24256 – Not A Stinker”