Category: Daily Cryptic

I found this quite an easy puzzle – Solving time 16 mins (very fast for me for the Times). * = anagram < = reversed ACROSS1 KA PUT – Ka, slightly obscure, Egyptian vital force, … Read more “23,800”

Solving time 6:47 Few problems with this puzzle on a day which is effectively Monday. Happy New Year to all. Across 1 ROTIS=riots*,SERIE(s) 9 (c)HECK(L)ER 10 PUBLISH – Cryptic def., ref. “publish and be damned” … Read more “23,799 – easy enough”

Solving time : 30 minutes I bid you welcome to 2008 from a still drowsy Dorset. This is an easy puzzle to start the year.I wish you all good solving in the new year, but … Read more “Times 23,798 Lang May Your Lum Reek”

Solving time: 1 hour 9 minutes An enjoyable puzzle. I did most fairly quickly, but there were quite a few words I was pretty sure I didn’t know where I had to unravel the wordplay.Quite … Read more “23797 – Foggyweb’s thimble”

Solving time: 14:38 A mistake at 20d held me up for a while and I’m glad I knew the literary reference at 14d and was able to guess 17a without knowing much about the opera … Read more “23,795”

Solving time: 20:02 I found this tough, though all entirely fair. Lots of interestingly constructed clues and witty surfaces. For COD, I’d probably go for the long hidden at 17A. I finished the right hand … Read more “Times 23,794”

Solving time : About 40 minutes. An enjoyable puzzle that didn’t make too many demands on this addled brain when tackled in the early hours before bedtime. Several nice clues, in particular 9, 24 and … Read more “23793 Oooh R!”

Solving time: 41 minutes Mostly ok – it took me a while to get going but then the answers came pretty steadily. I had to think hard to get the wordplay for a few of … Read more “23792 – My heart aches…”

Solving time: 8:50 Got stuck on 14ac at the end – yet another neglection of the rule that if you can’t solve a clue, just check that it’s not an anagram. * = anagram. Across … Read more “ST 4255 (Sun 16 Dec) – Non compos mentis”

A fairly tough puzzle. Looking back now, I think the reason is just a lack of frequently used words and well-used clue ideas – only CARRAGHEEN, laver and possibly ANDIRON count as tricky vocab. COD … Read more “23,785 – Seaweed special – Sat 15 Dec”