Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Hi all.  About 50 minutes in, my grid was still only half full and I abandoned any thoughts of a single session solve and had a rest.  The second half took a similar time, so a nice even pace even though it was a tough one.  An enjoyable challenge.  My favourite clue has to be 43a because it took me a while to see both times around!  Thanks to the setter.

I completed this in one session but had quite a lot of problems along the way.

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was harder than average, but with some excellent clues, and no real duds. I liked it. What did you think? Please, do feel free to ask questions or comment … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1628 – 5 August 2023”

Now here’s something. A first Jumbo Quick Cryptic? It doesn’t say that in the title, but it is by far the easiest Jumbo Cryptic I can remember.

I found this pretty easy, knocking it off in around 35 minutes with everything parsed.  What about you?

Hello everybody.  It felt like I had to work quite hard at this but I surprised myself by having all but a handful of entries at the hour mark.  Two intersecting pairs (8a/10d and 47a/43d) caused me some head-scratching at the close though.

All in all, 71:23 of concentrated concentration but also of concentrated enjoyment.  I thought this was full of good stuff and am glad I dedicated a proper sitting to it rather than grazing, as I sometimes do with Jumbos.  Thanks setter!

I found this fairly easy.

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was a little easier than average, except for one or two problems I had finishing off the NW corner. However, there are some really neat clues here, and our … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1623 – 1 July 2023”

This entertaining Jumbo is the work of our Crossword Editor, Richard Rogan. If he hadn’t told me it was his I think I might have guessed from the characteristic style. A little trickier than your usual Jumbo, it took me, I think, about an hour. With an abundance of wry definitions and clever wordplay, I had plenty of approving ticks on my paper copy.

This was certainly on the tougher side, for me at least.  I made reasonable progress on most of it but the last dozen or so clues, mostly in the bottom half of the grid, took my total time past the hour.