Category: Jumbo Cryptic

Hello all, from a murky and moist Surrey.  As Storm Alex blew in I realised that the last storm season has passed without reaching K, which I had been rather looking forward to. I plodded … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1460 – 19th September. Bad news …”

I liked the GK-ish aspects of this, such as 9dn, 12dn, 32dn, 37dn, 14ac, and our friend the poet of course, surely the second best Alfred among all poets. Cluing wise I liked 39ac, and … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1459: “When The Moon Is A Ghostly Galleon, Tossed Upon Cloudy Seas…””

I think this was a reasonable Jumbo, although some of the parsing was a bit of a struggle when writing this up, with 20D and 52D becoming clearer as I went through the puzzle again. … Read more “Jumbo 1458”

I found this Bank Holiday entertainment a little on the easy side finishing in under 38 minutes despite being held up for quite a while by my last 4, but it is enlivened by some … Read more “Times Bank Holiday Cryptic Jumbo 1457 – 31st August”

45 minutes.  Maybe slightly over my par time but not too tricky.  I had to check a few facts when writing up the explanations. First in was GAGSTER and last was MASS MEDIA. If any … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1456 – Charles Dickens, Joseph Heller and Bill Bryson walk into a bar”

Hi all.  A quick one from me this week.  I’ve been a busy bee, and now my brain is so scrambled that I don’t know what kind of creature I am, let alone have anything … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1455 – 22nd August”

I thought this was a superb jumbo, with all sorts of interesting words well, in some cases brilliantly clued. 7 to 9 down is a run of three of my very favourites, but 8dn wins … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1454: Douze Points”

Very, very straightforward. I did not time myself but I pretty well completed this from top left to bottom right without stopping. I think I only went back afterwards to check 21A was correct. My … Read more “Jumbo 1453”

Let me see now. What do I remember about soving this nearly 2 weeks ago?  Notes on my paper copy say I was all but done in 40 minutes but then took nearly another 10 … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1452 – 1st August”

A perfectly good Jumbo of standard difficulty, for me at least.  I got a little bit stuck on a few at the bottom but still finished in about 40 minutes.  There were some nice touches … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1451 – I’ll have an onion bhaji and some Bombay potatoes please”