Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 9.55. Worked through this pretty steadily, with the SE corner the last to crack. Felt as if I should have been a couple of minutes faster when I’d finished. I thought the grid … Read more “Times Crossword 24093”

Easily sub-10 minutes here; shall I tempt fate by saying this looks like it’s going to be one of those easy weeks after some quite testing puzzles in the last fortnight? No, best not. I … Read more “Times 24,092 – The Bare Necessities”

Solving time: 36 Minutes Quite fun and not too difficult. NW corner last to go in for me. As soon as I got VARNISH, the rest fell into place.Mostly familiar, although I learned the name … Read more “Times 24091”

Solving time: 6:50, one mistake (7dn) I didn’t know the Ibsen play Hedda Gabler, and guessed wrongly from the anagram at 7dn. One-all, then, with the setter’s / editor’s / printer’s gaffe at 6ac. Elsewhere, … Read more “ST 4305 (Sun 30 Nov) – Hedda ache”

This was mostly straightforward and took me 40 minutes with no major hold-ups. For a while I had answers dotted around all four quarters and it took a little time for them to start coming … Read more “24089 – Nice end to a tricky week”

Solving time : 17 minutes, with a few brief distractions. Though I didn’t think I was going to do this at all tonight, I was greeted with the little yellow birdy picture. I managed to … Read more “Times 24088 – ooerr – a puzzle from the backdoor!”

Well thank you very much Mr (or Mrs) Setter! What an absolute stinker this was. After 20 minutes I was considering coming on here and apologising for lack of blog because I only had three … Read more “Times 24087 – 3rd Dec 08. Hellish route indeed – my worst nightmare”

Solving time : 20 minutes A very straightforward pleasant enough puzzle with no outstanding features or queries but two mathematical references – things are looking up! Across 1 KINGS,CROSS – honours=KINGS (playing cards); decoration=CROSS; infamous … Read more “Times 24,086 Euclid Stars”

Solving time: 39 minutes Mostly straightforward, although I got held up for quite a while in the NE corner. After write-up, I don’t think I get 18. Across 5 B,OTTOM – MOTTO,B reversed 9 PUN,IT,I’VE … Read more “The Times Cryptic Crossword Number: 24085”

Solving time: 4:26, one mistake (‘lannata’ for LANTANA at 20dn) A typical Sunday Times puzzle: mostly straightforward, a couple of difficult words, some very good clues and a couple of pretty bad ones. * = … Read more “ST 4304 (Sun 23 Nov) – Ooh, ah, lantana”