Category: Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 6m10s – Felt like a good time, as the NW corner particularly took some (fast) concentrated thought to deduce. One or two references, and odd words, that I knew (and one word … Read more “23,496 – Lift & separate”

Solving time : 14:07  Felt like hard work this morning, though no individual clue is especially obscure.  Not so many cultural allusions as usual, but English Lit references all the way from Shakespeare to Andy … Read more “23495 – Hard cheese”

Solving time 6:19 One or two North country words, so I idly wonder whether this is from a “north of Watford Gap” setter. And some well-disguised clues such as 17A for constructions I must have … Read more “23,494 – from the North or the classical Med?”

Solving time: About 8 minutes with a 45 minute power nap half way through (it’s been one of those days…). Most of this was fairly straightforward but 22ac and 12dn stumped me at first. * … Read more “23,493 – Fine until the 22dn”

Solving time: 56 minutesI went through this at a steady pace.There were a good variety of clues, with quite a few straightforward ones for us beginners to get cracking with. I found 13D difficult but … Read more “23,492 – still trying, still learning”

Solving time 19:28 I seem to remember being stuck for a while in the top right-hand corner, mainly through having CONTRAST for 11ac (C,O,N,START* seemed obvious, although it doesn’t hang together). ACROSS 1 BAN(IS)TER 9 … Read more “23485/Sat 30th Dec”

Solving time: 11:48 I didn’t find this easy, partly because there were a few words or references that I didn’t know, partly because some of the clues were beautifully misleading, but I’m not sure which … Read more “23,490 – Ee bah gum”

Solving time : 8:27 As usual, I entered quite a few words (including 10, 14 and 24 across and 3 and 13 down) quickly without having worked out the wordplay. (One of the good things … Read more “23489 – guesswork”

Solving time 13:33 I found this an entertaining but quite difficult puzzle, with some of that “tough puzzle makes easy clues harder than they should be” effect that one or two others have mentioned. I … Read more “23488 – not a 12 in the park”

Solving time: 5:35 This might have been trickier for overseas solvers, with references including Lewis Carroll [sort of!], Gilbert & Sullivan and (naturally) cricket. Beginners’ tips of the day – ‘garland’ = LEI, ‘stolen’ = … Read more “23,487 – A very English crossword”