Category: Jumbo Cryptic

I found this quite challenging and there were some rather brilliant feats of cluing, in particular the breaking down and reconstructions of words such as 33dn and especially my LOI (by a mile) and COD … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1444: In Which Moustachios Are Twirled”

A fairly normal Jumbo, with one very much unknown solution (4D) that required a dictionary check. As an aside the famous maestro in 17A and the inventor of the pills in 52A were grandson and … Read more “Jumbo 1443”

This Jumbo was a proper workout to keep us busy on a Bank Holiday instead of getting too close to others on the beach. I had a meagre 12 answers after reading through all the … Read more “Times Bank Holiday Cryptic Jumbo 1442 – 25 May”

This was fairly standard Jumbo fare I thought, and there’s nothing wrong with that.  It took me about 50 minutes all told.  First in was AIR RAID and last was the WOOD part of the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1441 – not a palindrome of Ipswich”

Hello everyone.  I hope you are well. A gentle giant, perfect for a dozy blogger, and I hope you enjoyed it too.  Thanks to the setter. Definitions are underlined in the clues below.  In the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1440 – 16th May. BFG”

Sorry this is a little late – the recent spate of Bank Holidays have discombobulated me quite. Found this quite enjoyable to write up the parsings for, thank you setter! While I quite enjoyed the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1439: All Moustache And No Top Hat”

A pleasant Bank Holiday Jumbo in lockdown. Not much more to say, although I did like 6D. Apologies for any typos – this was produced in haste as I realised the deadline was approaching. ACROSS1 … Read more “Jumbo 1438”

I don’t keep a record of my solving times for the Jumbo, but this was surely my quickest at just 24:30 on the clock. For once there were (to me) no unknown words or General … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1437 – 2nd May”

I thought this was a fairly gentle lockdown offering, taking about 40 minutes including parsing everything.  First in was BRIDGE at 1d (I sometimes have a cheeky look at 1d if I don’t get 1a … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1436 – I shot a man in Reno”

Hi all, I hope you are keeping well. This was a jumbo with less of a trunk than a snout, complete with curly tail and a large oink!  I spent longer than I’d like to … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1435 – 18th April. Pork pies from the butcher’s”