Category: Daily Cryptic

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”

Solving time : 12:13 The top half went fairly quickly, with only a couple of gaps, but then I couldn’t see SHARPSHOOTER, and despite the easy anagram for OUTER MONGOLIA the bottom half dragged a … Read more “23543 – there was no Adèle Forsyte”

Solving time 11:08 – with one crass error I started out with hopes of a third sub-5 on the trot, but these soon evaporated. Eventually I was left with 2 and 9. I gradually found … Read more “23542 – Swift? Yes and No – I took a knock”