Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Hi everyone.  I didn’t record a time for this as it was a very leisurely solve on holiday, but it felt gentle.  Lots to like though and, going through it again for the blog, I was impressed by the high quality.  Thanks setter!

Live solve video available here. This was on the breezy end but there were a few standout clues – I liked “queen perhaps” at 24ac and “high earning African” next door to it was pretty … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1559: Setting The Fox Among The Layers”

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was middle ranking in difficulty terms, nothing too obscure or difficult but not a gimme either. The only problem I had was deciding what to underline as the definition, in a few cases at least. What did you think?

I found this a Jumbo of average difficulty with plenty of straightforward clues to give checkers for the trickier ones. It took me just over 35 minutes.

Hello one and all.  This is my first blog on the new site and because of the timing of these things I’m the only blogger who didn’t get the chance to do a parallel run while this site was in development and the old site was still going.  So this could all go horribly wrong

Hello everyone.  This felt like a very well balanced puzzle in terms of difficulty: the distribution of filled answers stayed even as I solved, and my pace remained steady.  All very enjoyable too.  Thanks setter!

Just a mad dash for the finish line this one – I did it in under 8 minutes but the mighty Magoo was close to 7. Which is maybe what you want for a Monday … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1554: Vrooooooooom!”

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was rather more straightforward than average, with no unknowns and only one spelling issue (at 34dn). Certainly a great deal easier than the beast that was 1548, the last one I blogged. There seemed to be a lot of girls (Ena,  Esther, Lucy, Susie) and quite a lot of extremely long single words clued with anagrams. What did you think?

I found this a satisfying Jumbo to complete with some masterful complex wordplay, whimsical definitions and neat surfaces to admire. Quite a few single letter deletions, I thought, so my strikethrough button in the editor got plenty of use.

I thought this was mostly straightforward, especially for a bank holiday, with most of the unusual words very fairly clued.  I got a little bogged down in the SE corner where the long clues that … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1551 – call for the RFDS or an ambo”