Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 6m45s – Seemed a little hard to get started, and then I had one of those experiences where partial answers and clues that wouldn’t yield meant a corner (NE) was filled with … Read more “23,443 – Played IT by ear”

Solving time : 14:50 Good start, with 1A, 1D and the two long ones across the centre filled in straight away. But then trouble in the corners, and five full minutes at the end to … Read more “23,442 – trouble in the North-West”

Solving time 10:12 – but add a few minutes to account for knowing 17A in advance. This was the third puzzle in preliminary session B of the championship, and it was solved by 54 per … Read more “23,441 – Harder than I thought”

Solving time: 5:06 Tuesdays have been tricky recently, but fortunately this run has seemingly come to an end for my first posting. Particularly helpful were the four long answers, three consisting of multiple or hyphenated … Read more “23,440 – Beginner’s luck”

Solving time : 1h 46m Ports would have to be my weakest area of general knowledge and I get two of them in my inaugural review; I knew Rotterdam, but Oran was a new one … Read more “23,439 – Two ports today”

Solving time :13m 05s I found this one very hard going. No more than two answers entered in the first two minutes, and both of those only thanks to previous experience of very similar devices. … Read more “23,437 – Aphrodisiacs, slapper and suspender all combining to make this one hard”

Solving time : 9:35… … but with one mistake (11A). Otherwise a very enjoyable puzzle. All the clues read well, and there are some really funny ones, especially 1A. Across 1 QUART(O) – because it … Read more “23,436 – A bad beginning”

Solving time 7:41 This is the middle one of the three puzzles from the second preliminary session of the championship. It’s fairly easy for a championship puzzle – 64% solved it within the time limit … Read more “23,435 – where did they go wrong?”