Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 14:07 Hidden messages or tricks, sometimes referred to as Ninas, are routine in the Times2 non-cryptic puzzle, but rare in the cryptic. Today the bottom and top rows celebrate Helen Ougham’s status … Read more “23555 – Well done, Helen O”

Solving time 7:00 Quite a few unusual words and meanings here. Satisfied with the time considering a poor start – neither of 1 or 6 across fell on first look, and a slight delay for … Read more “23,554 – quite tricky”

Solving time: 55’ but not sure about one answer I did this mostly on a paper copy over breakfast in Manchester (that’s N. England not Sicily). Fortunately on my Sicily vacation I took a wrong … Read more “Times 23553/Sicily vacation”

Solving time : 1hr 24I found this pretty hard going – but very enjoyable. A few I guessed straightaway from the definition and didn’t fully work out til a bit later – 1ac, 17ac, 29ac. … Read more “23,552 – The Difficult Crossing”

Morning, all. I’m your new regular Friday blogger, and, although I don’t ever hope to fill the shoes of my illustrious predecessor, I hope that we’ll get along. Today’s puzzle wasn’t as difficult as some … Read more “23,550 – Battling with action stations”

Solving time : 8:26 This started well, with no real hold-ups in the top half. Bottom half took a bit longer, with the linked 17D and 24A going in last. Rather than blaming my stupidity … Read more “23549 – symptom of daftness”

Solving time 6:30 Quite a few novel words as answers or used in wordplay, but clued so that I didn’t have any big hold-ups. Possibly fairly quick because there’s no significant general or literary knowledge … Read more “23,548 – Nutcracker rides again”

Very good surface readings in the admirably brief clues in this puzzle. I thought it was an excellent puzzle overall. Solving time: 19 mins (fast for the Times for me). * = anagramACROSS1 C(IT)ADE Lenin … Read more “Times 23,547 – lecher, trollop, Madonna (of old) to compensate”

Solving time : Just over an hourI didn’t get off to a great start today. I smiled at a few clues and learnt a few pieces of useless information along the way. The NE corner … Read more “23,546 – Well, nobody’s perfect”

Solving time: about 9 mins, one mistake (18dn) I thought this was better than some ST puzzles but not as good as last week’s. Most clues were fair, if a little verbose in places, with … Read more “ST 4214 (4th March) – Chewed up”