Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 35 minutes A reasonable and enjoyable puzzle with no particularly outstanding features Across 1 GARFIELD – (red flag)* US President James Garfield assassinated 1881 5 WHOLLY – W(ine-merchant)-HOLLY 8 AIM – A1 … Read more “Times 23882 Goodfunsy”

Solving time: 38 minutes I finished up in the NE corner, which I found the most difficult – and I spent quite a bit of time on 5D – the last to go in.I am … Read more “Times 23881 – reaping the whirlwinds”

Solving time: 10:22 A bit slow on this, especially in the bottom left. A mixture of good clues and bad, and a couple of synonyms I’m not convinced by, but no outright mistakes that I … Read more “ST 4270 (Sun 30 Mar) – Diplomatic immunity”

Solving time – 11:13  Did the bulk of this in about 7 minutes but the NE corner proved something of a stumbling block. Eventually got 1d and the others followed fairly quickly after that. 1a … Read more “23879”

Solving time : Egads! with a few frustration breaks and a search for coffee, 95 whopping minutes, and that includes using some google and Bradfords This is the most difficult crossword I’ve encountered in the … Read more “Times 23878 – don’t forget your toothbrush”

Solving time 9:43 After putting up the placeholder, I forgot that my e-mail inbox would still receive the comments. So from subject lines, I got the idea that this had been a struggle for some. … Read more “23,877 – a bit easier than I expected”

I had one major difficulty here, as will become apparent. 17 minutes of which the last five were spent inwardly debating, and then externally checking, 9 across. Across 5 BRAHMS – as in half of … Read more “Times 23,876 – X marks the spot”

Solving time: not sure, I did most last night in about 45 minutes and finished this morning in a further 10 minutes. Last to go in were 7,8, and 12. Across 1 TAKE SOME BEATING … Read more “Times 23875 – Placeholder”

Solving time: 7:33 I enjoyed this more than usual – some good clues and no major quibbles. Should probably have been faster but I was slow to spot a few fairly standard devices, especially ‘score’ … Read more “ST 4269 (Sun 23 Mar) – Score draw”

Fairly straightforward today but still tricky enough in places with the NE corner (as yesterday) putting up most resistance. I expect to see some very quick times from the hares today. This tortoise managed it … Read more “Times 23873”