Category: Jumbo Cryptic

I rather enjoyed this Jumbo which has a certain amount of quirkiness and whimsy enlivening the wordplay and definitions, with some taking me a while to work out…. and the style makes me think I … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1542 – 19th February”

One for wordplay fans this with only one CD and nary a DD, unless I’ve miscounted.  There’s some neat stuff too.  Not too easy, not too hard. First in was SAFFRON WALDEN and last was … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1541 – Was he only a drunken f**t on his birthday, and can he do the fandango?”

Hi everyone. This was a DNF for me, due to needing electronic help in the vicinity of sockdologer, and I was hardly speedy up until then.  I don’t think I can entirely put that down … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1540 – 05 February 2022. Call me Klaas”

I thought this a very superior specimen of the Jumbonic art, lots of really good lift-and-separates and surfaces with the definition part well and misleadingly concealed within. The first row went pretty much straight in … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1539: The Crossword Your Crossword Could Smell Like”

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was medium hard, with a fair number of straightforward clues and a few stinkers thrown in. To me it seemed to have an unusually high level of obscurities for … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1538 – 22 January 2022”

As I solved this the Saturday before last and remembered to use my solution as the framework for the blog I thought, “but it’s only a week since I published my last Jumbo blog”. Well … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1537 – 15th January”

Me again already.  The bank holiday Jumbos squeeze the schedule and our customary 5 week “rest” gets condensed to 3 weeks.  Oh woe is we bloggers on our zero-hour, zero-money contracts.  I solved this with … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1536 – Two legs bad, no legs…?”

Hello everyone.  The year is becoming less new, but I hope it is proving happy for you. I solved this on my phone in bed, gently falling asleep, but still the grid was full in … Read more “Times Bank Holiday Cryptic Jumbo 1535 – 3 January 2022. Happy New Rhubarb”

I honestly don’t know what happened to me at New Year’s 2022 – possibly alien abduction. This was a very straightforward puzzle though, unlikely to exacerbate any hangovers. My COD was 29ac – actually I … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1534: To Those Who Wait”

I don’t really remember too much about this. Maybe I was stuffed full of turkey and/or a bit tipsy at the time, but we’ve had so many other Jumbos between it and now, belatedly, as … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1532 – 25th December”