Category: Jumbo Cryptic

I don’t think I was ever on the setter’s wavelength on this one and it was a bit of a struggle, although looking back I cannot see any reason for that. It was a fair … Read more “Jumbo 1333”

My turn to blog the Jumbo. I have to confess I don’t always find the time to do the Jumbo – especially when the weather is so fine, but maybe I should take to solving … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1332 – 7th July”

Howdy folks.  How did you find this?  I thought it was pretty tough and it took me the best part of an hour to wrestle it into submission.  The high count of expertly hidden definitions … Read more “JUMBO 1331”

I found this one of about average difficulty, though the leaderboard seems to suggest a consensus of a bit harder than that. Some interesting constructions, e.g. in 8A, 14A, and 11D, a number of four-part … Read more “Jumbo 1330”

A straightforward enough Jumbo with some nicely concise cluing, and which touched on some interesting areas of general knowledge in the across clues. Did I blog this one on the actual correct day for the … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo 1329: B for Mutton”

Nothing particularly problematic in this, just a couple of things to check after solving (15D, part of 19D and the definition part of 35D). A couple of words (26A and 28D) that I have only … Read more “Jumbo 1328”

This was not your usual generous pachydermic fare, but contained some rather chewy bits. Curious vocabulary, such as BOLOMETER, DENARII, ETYMON, TEMPE, ORESTES and DESIDERATUM and some tricky wordplay/alternate definitions, such as PATERNOSTER, AGNES without … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1327”

This took a shade under 45 minutes including making sure I understood everything so by my standards at least this was straightforward.  Nothing wrong with that and there were some entertaining clues and neat definitions … Read more “Bank Holiday Jumbo 1326”

I think this was a slightly harder than average puzzle that I made more difficult courtesy of some brainlessness all of my own making. However after wading through this self-imposed mire, it was gratifying to … Read more “Jumbo 1325”

I’m very sorry that this has been so long denied – in only partial mitigation I was quite ill over last weekend, but I have also only recently worked out the numerological secret of Jumbos … Read more “Times Cryptic Jumbo No 1324 (19/5/2018): They Also Solve Who Only Stand And Wait”