Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 15:10 Lots of clever and funny clues. I might choose the simple 14D as clue of the day. No obscure words, though some less than obvious meanings. One I don’t understand altogether, namely … Read more “Times 23,759”

This puzzle seems to have been the main reason for 13 of the first 25 finishers in this prelim making a mistake, with the main culprit WICKET for PICKET at 20D. (See my results – … Read more “23,758 – Championship Prelim 2, Puzzle 2”

I found the clues to be a mixed bag — lots of easy clues but with quite a few hard ones that slowed me down considerably towards the end. Almost all across clues in the … Read more “Times 23757 – older slipways”

Solving time 20 minutes – a fairly easy start to the week. Across 11 ARABI(A)N SEA(an airbase)* 12 POINT TO POINTERS – my COD; short, amusing and clever 14 FANCY MAN – I’m not sure … Read more “Times 23756”

Solving time: 8:01 Struggled to finish this off, partly because of an error at 17dn, but the long word at 9dn took the most time. Music (8dn): Angel of Harlem by U2. * = anagram, … Read more “ST 4249 (Sun 4 Nov) – Bemusing”

Back on form this morning, completing this puzzle in less than seven minutes. Things just seemed to click into place, and guesses turned out to be good ones. ACROSS 1 TATE(r) 3 BOOK CRITIC – … Read more “23754 – More of a jive than a pavan for me…”

Solving time: 16:06 I don’t know whether to blame my cold for my slow time, or to accept that it was a difficult puzzle for me. I found lots of the clues quite hard to … Read more “23,753 – better than never”

Solving time: say 13 minutes I have 11:20 written next to this puzzle but had probably heard one or two answers being talked about. On the other hand, the prize was in the bag so … Read more “23,752 – Championship Prelim 2, Puzzle 1”

Accessing the online version was somewhat technically challenging but the puzzle itself was pretty reasonable — everything fell into place after about 20′ — though the NE corner was the last to succumb. One new … Read more “Times 23751 – two women”

I found this a little hard to get started, but, once I did, found it not too difficult a puzzle. Solving time: 21 mins (fast for me) * = anagram < = reversedACROSS1 D (ALES … Read more “Times 23,750 (Mon 05 11 07)”