Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 23:52 Because this is appearing late (for which I apologise) it is written in some haste. I shall add any necessary corrections later. I think it was a tough one. Lots of words … Read more “24,004”

A nicely tough work-out. For me the tricky clues were at the bottom, with the last few saolved being 22/24, 17, 16,27,15. COD for me was 5D. A very minor weakness is that one=1 and … Read more “24003”

Solving time: not taken. I’m afraid I lost interest in this puzzle when I realised that there were several more clues than there should have been. It seems that (in the online version) several additional … Read more “ST 4290 (Sun 17 Aug) – Butterfly nuts”

Solving time : 25 minutes I enjoyed this puzzle, which wasn’t difficult but had some nice clues. I particularly like ADAPTOR at 23A. PECK at 26A may give some problems since not everybody had to … Read more “Times 24,002 A Brief Encounter”

Solving time: 39 minutesQuite a straightforward one today. I think they put a reasonably easy one in to encourage more people to try the Bank Holiday Jumbo. I’ll be giving that a go tonight. No … Read more “24001”

Solving time: 16.31 The bottom half of this went in relatively painlessly but I was left with 7 or 8 empty spaces at the top in two unconnected groups which took a lot longer to … Read more “Times Crossword 23999”

Solving time : 26 minutes. Time should have been a lot faster, but I was doing this online from a hotel that allegedly has high-speed internet. It has unreliable internet that can be pilfered from … Read more “23998 – under construction”

Solving time 16:57 Had all but four solved in about 10 minutes and then a mighty struggle. Those four were in the SW corner that troubled many – 20/23/21/19. I didn’t understand cannabis commonly = … Read more “23,997”

Solving time : 16 minutes, for a very amiable puzzle, with nothing especially demanding to detain most solvers, I’d have thought (and a couple of clues which raised a chuckle from this one, at least). … Read more “Times 23,996 – Double Science”

Solving time: 11:45 Not very good from me – got stuck on 2dn, which was excusable as I didn’t know the architect, and 1ac which I really should have got much faster. I’ll blame it … Read more “ST 4289 (Sun 10 August) – No smart aleck”