Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time 9:15 – with the last 2 or so pondering 1D. This seems a very fair test – no literature that I can detect, and not too much local culture. The answers are well-chosen … Read more “23,919 – hunting for 1D”

Solving time : 35 minutes I enjoyed this puzzle but I have a feeling parts of it may cause some problems. Some of the clues, 14A for example, have a Mephisto feel about them and … Read more “Times 23918 Hyroglyphs from Hi-De-Alloa”

Solving time: over an hour and a half in a few sittings Sorry for the lateness of this post – I have had a really hectic day (unexpectedly) and tried to do this in a … Read more “23917”

Solving time: 5 mins for all but 26ac and 9dn, on which I subsequently gave up. In fact, my guess at 26ac (FIELDFARE) proved correct, but I wouldn’t have got 9dn in a month of … Read more “ST 4276 (Sun 11 May) – Lock and Awe”

Solving time: 8:27  Pretty straightforward I thought. I’ll go for 4d as my COD.  Across 1 f(ROZE)*n – ZERO. 4 (SO A SPY)* in PLUM – PLAY POSSUM. 11 TO US,LE 14 hidden in “manY … Read more “23915”

Solving time: 8:49 Reasonably pleased with this time for a puzzle with a lot of unfamiliar words and meanings. MASSÉ and TILLER=shoot I simply did not know. And AMERCE, CATALPA and OBEAH are not part … Read more “Times 23,914”

Solving time 9:08 Not easy, but nothing terribly hard either. COD nominations: 1D and 17, both for fitting clever changes of word meanings into smooth surfaces. Across 1 SOLE,CISM = M(u)SIC rev. 9 DAN – … Read more “23,913 – blog and pie chart”

Around 15 minutes for me, which suggests there will be some fast times today: on the one hand this puzzle required some, to my mind, fairly obscure knowledge in the fields of ancient history, religion, … Read more “Times 23,912 – Run of the Mill?”

Time: 24 minutesI found this pretty easy but there was plenty of fun to be had along the way.Although I didn’t write it in, I couldn’t get Paraguay out of my thinking for 1A – … Read more “23911 – Good One”

Solving time: 2:43 An easy puzzle but I just missed a PB, which is very disappointing. A mistake in the clue for 8dn, which is also disappointing. * = anagram, “X” = sounds like ‘X’. … Read more “ST 4275 (Sun May 4) – E for ‘aura’”