Daily Cryptic – Page 523 – Times for The Times

23,486 – and a Happy New Year to all

foggyweb1st January 2007 at 5:50 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 1h 12mNot a bad start to the year. I spent an hour on this and had completed most but the SW corner. Came back after a short break and it all fell … Read more “23,486 – and a Happy New Year to all”

23,484 – Curate’s egg

johnhenderson29th December 2006 at 11:15 AM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 8mins approx Some excellent clues here, others I found quite strained, and two (13ac/5dn) that I still don’t fully comprehend. Across 4 E(D/M/ON)TON 9 S/IGNORA(N.T.) 11 KID/NAP/S 12 HORUS, ref HOU/R/S 13 C/LEVEL/AND … Read more “23,484 – Curate’s egg”

23,483 – Mix-ups cut no ice

richardvg28th December 2006 at 4:39 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 8:42 Each letter of the alphabet appears at least twice in the grid, giving some interesting words to clue – I enjoyed the howitzer and the sasquatch. Also the occasional well-worn word, … Read more “23,483 – Mix-ups cut no ice”

23,482 – Seeing double??

petebiddlecombe27th December 2006 at 5:28 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time 9:11 In total, 14 letters of the alphabet appeared at least twice in the same answer somewhere in this puzzle. I suspect a doubled-letter pangram is impossible, but occasionally setters seem to try … Read more “23,482 – Seeing double??”

23,481 – 9ac gave me the 9ac

talbinho26th December 2006 at 6:05 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time: Gave up after 25 mins or so with one missing (9ac) and two wrong (10ac, 24ac). Had a good start on this one but got bogged down and spent the last 15 minutes … Read more “23,481 – 9ac gave me the 9ac”

23,479 – Felicitous yet laboured?

i_am_magoo22nd December 2006 at 9:35 AM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 4m46s – welcome relief for me after a taxing few days at the blockface. Quite a variety of feelings about the clues – two elegant &lits, some other very felicitous phrasing, but … Read more “23,479 – Felicitous yet laboured?”

23478: what about flight lieutenant?

richardvg21st December 2006 at 5:44 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 13:11 I entered two words wrongly, but managed to recover them. Last word solved PERRON, of which I have never heard. Lots of fun clues today, but also a number of clues … Read more “23478: what about flight lieutenant?”

23,477 – one for old hands?

petebiddlecombe20th December 2006 at 12:25 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time 7:15 A fairly good time for this, but there was lots of “instinctive solving” going on, with plenty of def-guessing and a few lucky spottings of probable wordplay material that helped. I got … Read more “23,477 – one for old hands?”

23,476 – Christmas gift

talbinho19th December 2006 at 4:48 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time: 6:51 Most of this puzzle was very straightforward as the clues were packed with clichés and most definitions were transparent. However, a few difficult words slowed me down: in particular, I didn’t know … Read more “23,476 – Christmas gift”

23,475

foggyweb18th December 2006 at 4:42 PM10 September 2025Daily Cryptic

Solving time : 1hr 24minsI initially wondered whether the clue for 27A being half-printed with the Down clues had any significance, but then I spotted 24D was incomplete. According to the online version 24D should … Read more “23,475”