Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 9:26 – my most disappointing time of the week (though not my longest) – after a minute’s thought, I got going OK at the start, and didn’t realise I was getting held up … Read more “Times 23,718 (detecting the architects)”

Solving time: 21:31 Alarming to take more than 20 minutes with Cheltenham looming. It was the North West corner that held me up. It would have been much faster if I had cracked the obvious … Read more “23,717 – Vicious but fair”

Solving time 6:17 Although this was fairly quick, it seemed to use a few things that could be new to some. Across 1 R.A.(C(omi)C),O,ON – {working = on} is one for beginners to remember 5 … Read more “23,716 – easy for old hands or medics?”

Sorry I’m late with this – I’m in a new job and had to interleave solving this with a million other things. None of which I managed to finish at work. Had to wrap this … Read more “Times 23715/it’s Tuesday again”

Solving time: 27:40 An enjoyable puzzle, mostly quite easy, with a few educated guesses where I wasn’t entirely sure. I sussed out all the wordplay before I wrote in the answers.I didn’t know Esk, choriamb … Read more “23714 – easy start to the week”

Solving time: Gave up on 20ac after 20 mins, with 17dn also wrong. My main quibble today is with the non-dictionary phrases at 1ac and 18dn. On the other hand, a couple of the (many) … Read more “ST 4242 (Sun 16 Sep) – Sticky tape”

I really struggled with this one, and eventually had to revert to a solver for the last clue – 11 across. I’d be interested to know how many average commuters solved this one on the … Read more “23,712 – deSPICAble”

Solving time: 18:33 I found this pretty tough-going. Some very good and witty clues, but not enough easy ones for me. And I was worried about 10A until I found that an oxer really is … Read more “23,711 – no bad for a scunner”

Solving time 16:10 On first look, I got to 16A before writing anything, but then did quite well with the bottom half and worked back into the NE corner. But the top left took ages, … Read more “23,7010 – a bit of a struggle”

Solving time: 35’ I think the Tuesday curse has been lifted. I got about half of the clues in my first “cold solve” sweep which is a very high percentage for me. Heraldry not being … Read more “Times 23709/only one trouble spot”