Category: Daily Cryptic

My time taken to solve was off the specially extended scale! I knew I’d get one like this today after the run of quite easy ones recently. Many of the clues were difficult yet fair, … Read more “24053 – Apparently so…..”

Solving time : 8 minutes, which is good, things have been rushed lately, and so will be this report. One little quibble, a lot of straightforward clues, but some very concise wordplay. Good puzzle to … Read more “Times 24052 – blogging on a budget”

Solving time: maybe 6-7 minutes on the day I expect my time to be beaten – it includes what felt like a couple of minutes of jitters near the end (though it may actually have … Read more “24,051 – 2008 Champs Prelim 1, Puzzle 1”

Solving time : 40 minutes I struggled at times with this and then found it difficult to decide which clues to omit from the blog – always a sign of a good puzzle. There are … Read more “Times 24,050 Trench Warfare”

Solving time: 56 minutes I made heavy weather of this, pencilling part answers in left, right and center only to find they were totally wrong! Quite a few new words for me – and a … Read more “24049”

Solving time: 11 mins, 5 of which on 30ac. After a couple of very good puzzles, this one was very much at the other end of the spectrum, being riddled with mistakes and dodgy clues. … Read more “ST 4298 (Sat 12 Oct) – Fita, Apia, more obstructive”

Solving time: 9.24, which felt as if it should have been faster. I didn’t think this was a very interesting puzzle; quite a few of the clues just seemed to lack inspiration and to be … Read more “Times Crossword 24047”

Solving time: 19:10 Mortification for me. I put in SETTLED for SAMPLED at 18D. I can’t now see why. Anyway that made 21A very difficult, and I was left puzzling over it, 16D, 15A and … Read more “Times 24,046”

Solving time on the day (estimate): 9 minutes As expected, this and the next two Wednesdays will replay the drama of the first Preliminary at Cheltenham. For this one, I can remember the solving process … Read more “24,045 – 2008 Champs Prelim 1, Puzzle 3”

Solving time : 19 minutes, and once more my alternate Tuesday presents another pleasant and straightforward solve, at least as far as I was concerned. Q0-E5-D5. Across 1 DROWSY – (SWORD)rev + (fault)Y. 4 SUPERMAN … Read more “Times 24,044 – The Devil to Pay”