Category: Jumbo Cryptic

I thought this at the gentler end of difficulty for a Jumbo, taking just over 35 minutes. It did take me a while to get properly going, though, solving only 6 across clues on the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1502 – 5th June”

Well what do you know, the third consecutive bank holiday jumbo falls into my blogging lap.  Last time out, to avoid pushing in front of Kitty’s blog, I published some time on the Saturday afternoon … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1501 – egg egg egg egg egg Florentine”

Hello everybody.  For the third time in a row my blogging day fell on the Saturday before a bank holiday; this time, however, there is a special occasion to mark — and marked it is … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1500 – 29th May 2021. Much Difficulty”

A quick solve for me, nothing too hard to write up the parsings for here. I was grudgingly going to admit that the sports-related clues (eg 40ac) were among the most memorable of the across … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1499: The Man With The Midas Touch, A Spider’s Touch”

Hello again. This Jumbo I thought was extremely straightforward, solved in a single session (unusually for me) in maybe 20 mins.  But it has some extremely neat surface readings and constructions, so I still enjoyed … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1498 – 15 May 2021”

I greatly enjoyed this Jumbo which has lots of delightful quirky definitions, such as “Who cares?, Don’t bet on it!, That settles it!” and the lovely “You’ll get stick when it’s finished” in the acrosses… … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1497 – 8th May – Down with Cruciverbalpachydermosceptiscism!”

The fates decided to throw me a second consecutive bank holiday jumbo (this time I haven’t barged in front of Kitty) and once again I was kept entertained for somehwere over an hour.  The bank … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1496 – pardon me boy, is this the bodega?”

Hi everyone.  Thanks to the setter for this chewy but tasty offering to kick off the bank holiday weekend.  I had been forewarned about the difficulty and so allowed myself a couple of sessions.  There … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1495 – 1st May 2021. Ding: dang! Walla walla rhubarb”

All done in under the quarter hour, but enjoyable throughout, especially the sciency clues which tickled my GK centres most pleasurably, my favourite being the God particle at 32ac. Late to fall, and excellent penny-drop-moments, … Read more “Cryptic Jumbo 1494: Solved Only Using Techniques I Could Will Should Become Universal Cryptic Law”

Hello again. This Jumbo I found to be a steady solve, not too hard although when I had finished, there were four or five clues I could not properly parse. Hopefully doing the blog will … Read more “Cryptic Jumbo 1493 – 17 April 2021”