Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 9:00 If this time turns out to be a good one, it’s down to an old speed-solver’s trick – gambling on answers from wordplay the def. and checking letters, without full understanding of … Read more “Times 24176”

24:21 .. A lot harder than yesterday’s and maybe a bit more to discuss. I can’t fully explain 11a but I’m sure the wordplay’s in there somewhere. Explanations, please. Enjoy St Patrick’s day. Only one … Read more “Times 24,175 Top of the morning to ya..”

Solving time: 12 minutes Wow, I wasn’t expecting that. Every so often a puzzle comes along that doesn’t require a lot of work. I wrote in most answers after just one look at the clue. … Read more “Times 24174”

Solving time: 4:37 Oh dear. That wasn’t very good at all. Three clueing errors, I think (26ac, 8dn and 11dn) and numerous other quibbles, but please do comment if you have any better explanations. If … Read more “ST 4319 (Sun 8 Mar) – Lost for words”

This took me 40 minutes, but having finished it I don’t quite understand what detained me for so long. The 5s were the last in, and I think I wasted too much time trying to … Read more “24172”

I put up a placeholder when it was clear that someone had forgotten about a swapped blogging slot today. The rest of this is from richardvg – glheard is absolved of any blame that might … Read more “Times 24171”

… for me in terms of ‘general knowledge’, for a start. Started with 9 and the intersecting 6 and 7, and never looked back except for some daftness at 11 and minor puzzlement at 14, … Read more “24170 – The right stuff …”

Solving time : 15 minutes A puzzle for new solvers with little to comment upon apart from its mixture of witches and Fanny Hill come hither sandwiched between the upright Sir Galahad and the dissolute … Read more “Times 24169 For Adults Only”

Solving time – in a few sessions, probably about 40 minutes. All good fun. Struggled a bit after I’d got about half quite quickly – last two in took a while – 11 (MARTELLO) and … Read more “Times 24168”

Solving time: 13:55 Some difficult words in this (I didn’t know CARGOOSE, JOTA or BREECHES BUOY and there are other tricky ones too), and a very mixed bag of clues. * = anagram, “X” = … Read more “ST 4318 (Sun 1 Mar) – Jota joy”