Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Solving time: 42:38 Apologies for the second consecutive late Jumbo posting.  As you know the idea had been mooted to scrap them, but the consensus emerged to keep them going in a reduced format.  Consequently, … Read more “Jumbo 679/Jan 13th – the first “compact” Jumbo”

As there have been very few comments about these puzzles, I’ve decided that the (sometimes considerable) effort of writing blog entries about them isn’t really justified, and that we’ll stop writing about them. If there … Read more “Times Jumbo puzzles”

Solving time: 17:01 I think my best time for the Jumbo is somewhere in the region 15-17 mins, so this was a pretty quick one. Enough slowness on my part that I’m a bit disappointed … Read more “Jumbo 678/Jan 6 – Black and white”

Solving time: 46:36 Since joining the blogging team, my Jumbo times have been consistently in the range of about 17 to 30 mins, so I found this significantly harder than normal. Nor was it just … Read more “Jumbo #674/23 Dec – Waxing lyrical”

Solving time – 32:39 Another Times Jumbo with no answers longer than 14 letters. As PB often says, why make a 23×23 grid if you’re not going to use the extra size? ACROSS 9 CAS(h),HEW, … Read more “Jumbo 672 – run out of long phrases?”

Solving time: 18:58. No mistakes, but I dithered at the end over 30ac, 55ac and 21dn, none of which I was totally confident about. I think this was the most straightforward Jumbo for a while, … Read more “Jumbo 670 – Planes, trains and automobiles”

Solving time: 18:55 A good selection of answers here, and some interesting clues. Quite a bit of religion – a creed, baptism, apostle, heretic, and Vishnu and his equivalent of nectar too. Also some interesting … Read more “Jumbo 669 – religion and deletions / One month in …”

Just remembered this was waiting to be posted … Solving time 15:55 A fairly easy jumbo, this one. I don’t have as much data about Jumbo times as for the daily cryptic, but the 10 … Read more “Jumbo 667 – cheeky setter rides again?”

Or at least, that’s what I was expecting from the crossword’s number. In fact, other than APOCALYPTIC (and perhaps MAFIA and SWASTIKA), there seemed to be no particularly devilish entries, so I suspect the setter … Read more “Jumbo 666/Oct 28 – Diabolical”